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Red Bull driver Max Verstappen recently added a puppy to his family of ever-growing pets in his house. The Dutch driver is enjoying his offseason break after capturing his fourth successive world championship with the Austrian team in the 2024 season.
The 27-year-old had arguably his best title defense thus far as he had an inferior car to his championship rival McLaren driver Lando Norris for two-thirds of the season. However, he rallied and scored maximum points for 10 races between Austria and Mexico before eventually winning in Brazil and confirming his title in Las Vegas a week later.
2024 also proved to be a significant year off the track as Verstappen and his girlfriend Kelly Piquet announced they would become parents for the first time in early 2025. The duo have been dating each other since late 2020 and live in the Dutchman's apartment in Monaco with her five-year-old daughter, Penelope, whom she shares with former F1 driver Daniil Kvyat.
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The family of three has a busy household as the trio also has a number of pets living with them in their apartment.
How many pets does Max Verstappen have?
Max Verstappen and Kelly Piquet have four pets - three cats and a dog, with the latter being added most recently. The Dutch driver previously had two cats Jimmy and Sassy, who are of Bengal breed, but added a third one in the last months of 2024. He revealed the name of his newly added cat "Donatello" to the public during the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Verstappen was humorously targeted by his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase regarding the name of his new cat as he had promised to call it "GP" after him. To add to his three cats, the four-time F1 world champion added a puppy named "Nino", a Dachshund breed, to his family.
When the Red Bull driver shared the story of rescuing one of his cats
The Red Bull driver has previously spoken about rescuing one of his cats on his Live Stream on Twitch after he revealed that it got locked inside one of the rooms in the home.
The Dutch driver mentioned that the cat had gotten stuck in the closet room and locked in after one of the beds fell. He claimed that he had to create the hole through with a hammer and almost broke his shoulder while breaking the door but was successful in his attempt. However, he later humorously acknowledged that he did not know how to repair the broken door.
In an interview with Sportskeeda last year, Verstappen claimed that he considered himself more of a dog person despite having cats in his home. He believed that his love for animals came from his early years as he had cats and dogs as pets in his childhood home.
