"They'll keep trying but they won't stop you": Kelly Piquet's remark on Max Verstappen post after F1 Saudi Arabian GP

Max Verstappen's partner, Kelly Piquet, shared encouraging words for him after the end of an eventful F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix last night in Jeddah. The Dutchman faced an early penalty in the race that hampered his chances of victory.

Having set himself up for pole position, Verstappen was in a strong spot to start the race. However, he had a tangle going into turn 1 with Oscar Piastri's McLaren, who had started on the front row alongside him. This saw the Red Bull Racing driver going off the track whilst defending his lead, and he continued in P1 as the safety car was called out for an opening-lap incident.

The stewards investigated the issue and awarded Verstappen a 5-second time penalty. Piastri then kept his pace up till the first round of pit stops and managed to undercut Verstappen. Meanwhile, the latter served the penalty on his first stop and remained behind the McLaren for the rest of the race. His day ended on the podium with a P2 in his bag. He shared a social media post after the race, looking positively towards the next race weekend.

"Gave it everything today. Well done team @redbullracing 🙌 we move forward."

Max Verstappen's partner, Kelly Piquet, also commented on the post, appreciating and encouraging him, hinting at the incident in the race.

"They’ll keep trying but they won’t stop you ❤️," she wrote.

Kelly Piquet's comment on Max Verstappen's social media post after the 2025 Saudi Arabian GP (@kellypiquet on Instagram)

---

Max Verstappen predicts potential ups and downs for Red Bull this season

Red Bull Racing has faced a lack of competitive pace in the top order since the start of the season. Yet, Verstappen managed to win the Japanese Grand Prix and remained within winning contention in other races. However, he feels that there would be certain ups and downs throughout the season's length.

Discussing his race in Jeddah, he stated that the car was much better on race day than it was on Friday during the first two practice sessions.

"Compared to Friday, we improved a lot because on Friday we were struggling a lot on the tyres and I surprised myself in that first stint," Max Verstappen said (via F1). I didn’t expect that we could actually pull away a little bit."

He further mentioned that the team needs to work on the car, but predicted that some races would be better than others, and there would be challenging tracks as well.

"I think we know that we still have things to improve on the car and we just need to get a few updates on the car to help that. Some tracks will be better, some will be a bit worse. It’s tough, I think. I think what we need to try and work on is just being a bit more consistent overall."

Oscar Piastri now leads the Drivers' World Championship with 99 points in his bag. Meanwhile, Max Verstappen is in third place with 87 points.