Max Verstappen has four consecutive Formula 1 world championships. Asked what he considered the greatest prize in his life, he did not name any of them.

“Our daughter Lily is my greatest prize. Family is the most important thing to me anyway,” he told Dutch outlet Formule1.NL in an interview published this week.

Lily was born to Verstappen and his partner Kelly Piquet in April 2025. She turned one in Monaco this spring. On the morning Verstappen flew out to Hungary, she was standing by the door of the apartment as he stepped into the lift.

The moment at the elevator

Verstappen said the reality of leaving is only now beginning to settle in as his daughter gets older.

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“This morning, for example, when I flew here, the little one was standing by the elevator at home when I got in to go down,” he told the magazine.

The 28-year-old travels for all 24 grand prix weekends on the 2026 calendar. He grew up watching his father Jos, a former Formula 1 driver, do the same. In a separate interview earlier in July, he described video clips of Lily walking into his trophy room at home and calling for him.

“She can walk now and every time she opens that door she says ‘Papa? Papa?’, but yeah he’s not here.”

Red Bull off the pace

Red Bull has not matched McLaren or Mercedes for outright pace in 2026, and Verstappen’s podium finishes now come from strategy calls and race craft rather than a car that fits the circuit.

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He finished second at the Hungarian Grand Prix on 26 July, behind McLaren’s Lando Norris, after a late 29-lap stint on soft tyres that he had not expected to hold.

It was his fourth podium of the season, and he called the result “incredible” after describing the Red Bull as “broken” on team radio during the race.

In the Dutch interview, Lily came first

Verstappen trails Norris in the 2026 drivers’ championship after 11 rounds. Norris took the 2025 title from him by two points in a season that ran to the final race, and the McLaren has looked the class of the field again this year.

In the Dutch interview, none of that came up first. Asked what he considered his greatest prize, the four-time world champion answered with a name.

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