Max Verstappen the babysitter: 'Honey, what are we doing with Penelope?'

This time, it was not his girlfriend Kelly Piquet, whom Max Verstappen walked hand-in-hand with to the Melbourne paddock. As shown on Instagram, Verstappen's Brazilian girlfriend was staying in Los Angeles for her own successful career. Instead, the three-time world champion arrived on Friday holding little Penelope by the hand, Kelly's daughter and thus Verstappen's stepdaughter.

How would that have gone in the Verstappen-Piquet home? "Honey, I have some appointments in the United States next weekend, can you watch Penelope for a while?" And that Max then responds to Kelly with: "I have a Grand Prix in Australia!?!!" Two busy (step) parents. That might just have been the conversation at home in Monaco.

The fact is that the little one was in Australia for the past few days, so Max Verstappen had been assigned the task of looking after Penelope. Incidentally, Verstappen had to retire his Red Bull after less than five laps due to a brake problem. At that time, Kelly had also arrived in Australia.

After the Grand Prix, Verstappen, Kelly, and Penelope did not fly back to Europe but directly to Japan. The next Grand Prix is scheduled in just under two weeks there. Verstappen has several sponsorship commitments in the Land of the Rising Sun. In addition, there are still plenty of opportunities to spend time with Penelope and Kelly.