The promoters of the F1 São Paulo GP have bestowed Brazilian citizenship on Max Verstappen with a giant citizenship placard.
When Red Bull’s Verstappen made his way into the paddock on Saturday, he didn’t know the surprise in store from the promoters of the F1 São Paulo GP. Yes, he was greeted with a giant placard upon his entry.
Advertisement
Verstappen Jokingly Made Brazilian Citizen
The card read República Federativa do Brasil, carrying his full name, Max Emilian Verstappen, along with his photo, Dutch nationality and a signature, to make it look official, even though it was all a joke.
It even has his birth date of Sept. 30, 1997, and his place of birth, Hasselt, Belgium. The promoters gave him a personal number that read MV-003-1997 – denoting his race number 3 and his birth year of 1997.
The bottom of the placard had the name of the Grand Prix, Grande Prêmio de São Paulo 2026. Lewis Hamilton, by contrast, was made an honorary citizen of Brazil after a bill passed the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies in 2022.
Verstappen’s Close Ties With Brazil
It is not an official title for Verstappen, though. The Dutchman could be an adopted Brazilian citizen, considering that his partner is Kelly Piquet – daughter of three-time F1 champion Nelson Piquet, from Brazil.
Advertisement
At the time of writing, the photo post, captioned “We have another Brazilian on the grid” in Portuguese, had about 580K likes and nearly 2,000 comments, while the video had about 120K likes and over 400 comments on Instagram.
Verstappen said: “Thank you so much, guys. Like whenever I am in trouble, I can use this in Europe!” Red Bull Racing, meanwhile, commented: “Look at that cheesy grin. Obrigado (thank you).”
The Dutchman has had a good run at Interlagos with three F1 wins – including the famous 2024 victory from 17th on the grid – among his seven podiums.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
