Kelly Piquet and the Point of No Return

I’ve tried to avoid talking about Kelly Piquet extensively in this newsletter. This is for a variety of reasons—I cover her antics on my other social media accounts already, and I don’t want to drive away the people here for my lazy race recaps and other writing.

But the latest controversy of hers has forced my hand. Last Friday, she “caved” to requests to partake in the latest social media trend, the “2016 Challenge”. If you haven’t heard of this, it’s self-explanatory; participants share photos of themselves from 2016 as a kind of “time capsule.” It's supposed to be a fun look into what people were up to a decade ago.

And for Kelly, that’s how it started. Her “2016 Challenge” post showcased some of her past experiences—watching her sister graduate from college, traveling the world, and other similar experiences for a typical 27-28-year-old. But the last picture was her with a much-younger Max Verstappen, her current partner. The caption certainly was… something, to say the least:

On the surface, it’s framed like a harmless, slightly cheesy romantic anecdote. A decade-long arc. Fate. “Serendipity” even. But once you apply a basic timeline check, the story starts to become extremely uncomfortable.

This was 2016. Kelly was likely 27 during that meeting, but Max was 18 (or 19 if you believe the defenses she made in the comments, which I do not. Not that it makes any difference in the world of psychology). He was barely an adult. a barely-legal adult who had shot up in the ranks of motorsport just months ago when he won the Spanish Grand Prix in his first race with Red Bull, shattering several records in the process.

And coincidentally, Kelly would start appearing in Max’s Instagram likes just a month later.

She didn’t stop there. Between August and October 2016, Max posted 41 times on his Instagram. Kelly liked 24 of those posts, nearly 60% of them (yes, I counted. Sue me). That is not casual social media behavior. That is sustained engagement aimed at staying on the radar— Max’s radar.

Now zoom back out and remember what Max was in 2016: an 18-year-old who had just become the youngest Grand Prix winner ever. He was newly promoted, newly legendary, and newly useful to anyone who wanted a piece of his spotlight.

In a way, it was the perfect storm. I wasn’t even the only one to notice the unfortunate implications in this “love story”, and she dug herself a deeper hole with her responses.

Those screenshots encapsulate the controversy in a nutshell. Kelly didn’t try to save face and go “I know this looks bad, but it’s not what it looks like!” Just “so what.” Which is more of a dismissal rather than a defense— though to be fair, an adult framing a first encounter with a barely-legal person as destiny, then using cute, romantic language to normalize it… is inexcusable.

This isn’t even Kelly Piquet’s first brush with scandal. She supported Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 Brazilian elections. She liked posts defending her father when he made racist remarks about Lewis Hamilton. She spun a serious accusation about her breaking up a driver’s marriage as “hate” and “falsehoods”— without even mentioning what the controversy was in the first place. Critics of Kelly (myself included) get constant bombardment from her fans, calling us deranged and obsessed with her. In reality… we just want her to face accountability for all the people she has betrayed and hurt in the past.

But I don’t think she can easily recover from this. Mainstream tabloids have already reported on her comments in response to the criticism, even after she deleted them to hide the evidence. Posts on X and other social platforms calling her out for her behavior are going viral. Brands and people working with her are getting called out.

Even Kelly’s most recent posts, which have tried to steer the conversation away from what happened, are attracting comments calling her a predator and a groomer— and comments from fans telling her not to listen to the “jealous haters”.

I’ll be honest— I hope this backlash doesn’t die down any time soon. I won’t get into all of the things wrong with Kelly and her family today (I made a whole series of videos going over the major scandals), but people have good reason to not like her… not only as Max’s partner, but also as a person. She can be mean and vindictive, and her fans (maybe at her instruction, maybe not— but there is evidence she talks to her fanpages) stop at nothing to silence those who dare defy their queen. And I’m kind of getting fed up that she’s been getting away with it for so long.

In fact, this newsletter became less about the post that caused the controversy and more about the controversy itself. But there’s a lot to break down about Kelly’s post, and it’s a look at some of her biggest, darkest controversies.

I might just write about those while we wait for the new F1 season to start up. Stay tuned.

Love,

F