Max Verstappen delighted at birth of his first child with partner Kelly Piquet

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Four-time defending Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen arrived at the Miami Grand Prix on Friday as a first-time father after announcing he and partner Kelly Piquet had welcomed a daughter.

“Welcome to the world, sweet Lily,” Verstappen and Piquet wrote Friday on Instagram. “Our hearts are fuller than ever — you are our greatest gift. We love you so much.”

Verstappen had skipped Thursday activities at this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix to be with Piquet, the daughter of three-time F1 champion Nelson Piquet. The couple released no details about the birth, including when his daughter was born.

Verstappen and Piquet went public with their relationship in 2021. She has a daughter, Penelope, with driver Daniil Kvyat that Verstappen is very close with but this is the first child for Verstappen.

“He's going to be a very present father,” predicted Christian Horner, Verstappen's boss at Red Bull. “I'm just thinking of the genes of that child — it is quite incredible when you think of it: a Verstappen and then Piquet. If it was a racehorse, it would be worth a fortune.”

Verstappen joins Nico Hülkenberg as the only active F1 drivers this season with children.

“He’s joining that club. I hope it’s a good sleeper,” Hulkenberg said. “I think there’s lots to discover — many beautiful, nice things that come with that. I’m sure he’ll enjoy it.”

Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton said he spoke to Verstappen at F1's last race and could tell the Dutchman was eagerly awaiting the arrival of his child.

“It’s such an amazing, special thing,” Hamilton said. “I spoke to him briefly in Saudi and saw how excited he was. Big congrats to him.”

But there's a myth that racers often slow down when they become parents because they begin driving more cautiously and lose some of the edge that made them successful.

“Judge for yourself, look at the stats and what happens. Everyone is obviously different, but personally, I don’t feel that’s the case,” Hulkenberg said. "I feel once we step in the car — visor down, go out — even for me, I tend to forget what goes on outside because we’re just so focused and so driven to perform and maximize.

“I just personally feel it’s added benefit because it’s giving me so much outside of work and outside of being in Formula 1,” he added. “So I would even say it’s kind of been helpful for me, if anything.”

Horner doesn't believe there will be any change in his star driver's performance.

“I think he's a pretty measured guy, he's obviously got a step-daughter and he enjoys family life,” Horner said. “For him, it is business as usual. He's obviously tremendously proud and it's a great thing for him and Kelly to welcome a baby girl. That's a different achievement and a different perspective for him.”

Mercedes driver George Russell doubted being a father will change Verstappen's on-track performance.

“As Nico says, I think for many people it probably brings things to your life. I know what it’s like when I see my nieces and nephews — they’re not my kids, but they bring me so much joy when I spend time with them,” Russell said. “And you’ve seen drivers in the past win championships and races who’ve got kids, so I don’t see it changing anything on his professional level.”

Verstappen, who has 64 career victories, has won the last four F1 titles. He’s won just once this season as McLaren has shown an early edge over Red Bull headed into Sunday’s race, the sixth of the season. He is third in the series standings.

Verstappen won the first two Miami Grand Prix races, while Lando Norris of McLaren scored the first F1 victory of his career at this race last year.

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Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands steers his car during a practice session for the Formula One Miami Grand Prix auto race, Friday, May 2, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands stands in the pits during a practice session for the Formula One Miami Grand Prix auto race, Friday, May 2, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands puts on his helmet in the pits during a practice session for the Formula One Miami Grand Prix auto race, Friday, May 2, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands stands in the pits during a practice session for the Formula One Miami Grand Prix auto race, Friday, May 2, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands stands in the pits during a practice session for the Formula One Miami Grand Prix auto race, Friday, May 2, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Second placed Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands gestures on the podium during the Formula One Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

NUUK, Greenland (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump has made an American takeover of Greenland a focus of his second term in the White House, calling it a national security priority while repeating false claims about the strategic Arctic island.

In recent comments, he has floated using military force as an option to take control of Greenland. He has said if the U.S. does not acquire the island, which is a self-governing territory of NATO ally Denmark, then it will fall into Chinese or Russian hands.

Here’s a closer look at the facts.

TRUMP, discussing the security situation in the Arctic: “We need that because if you take a look outside of Greenland right now, there are Russian destroyers, there are Chinese destroyers and, bigger, there are Russian submarines all over the place. We’re not gonna have Russia or China occupy Greenland, and that’s what they’re going to do if we don’t."

THE FACTS: Experts have repeatedly rebuffed Trump's claims of Chinese and Russian military forces lurking off Greenland's coastline. Experts say Russia instead operates in the Barents Sea, off the Scandinavian coast, and both China and Russia have a presence in the Bering Sea south of Alaska.

“That statement makes no sense in terms of facts,” said Andreas Østhagen, research director for Arctic and ocean politics at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute in Oslo, Norway. “There are no Russian and Chinese ships all over the place around Greenland. Russia and/or China has no capacity to occupy Greenland or to take control over Greenland.”

“The only Chinese I see is when I go to the fast food market,” Lars Vintner, a heating engineer told The Associated Press in Greenland's capital Nuuk. He said he frequently goes sailing and hunting and has never seen Russian or Chinese ships. Another Greenlander, Hans Nørgaard, told AP that Trump's claims are “fantasy.”

Lin Mortensgaard, an expert on the international politics of the Arctic at the Danish Institute for International Studies, said that while there are probably Russian submarines — as there are across the vast Arctic region — near Greenland, there are no surface vessels.

China has research vessels in the Central Arctic Ocean, and while the Chinese and Russian militaries have done joint exercises in the Arctic, they have taken place closer to Alaska, she said.

Asked about Trump’s claim that there are multiple Chinese and Russian ships and submarines around the island, Greenland business minister Naaja Nathanielsen responded Tuesday: "Not that we are aware of."

While Russia and China have an interest in the Arctic, “we don’t detect an actual threat," she said.

“America is still recognized as quite a big superpower,” Nathanielsen added, “and I don’t see any appetite from Russia or China to destabilize this.”

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TRUMP, discussing Denmark's defenses in Greenland: "You know what their defense is? Two dog sleds."

THE FACTS: The Sirius Dog Sled Patrol, an elite Danish naval unit that conducts long-range reconnaissance and enforces Danish sovereignty in the Arctic wilderness, is stationed in Greenland.

It's a key part of the Danish military infrastructure in the inhospitable Arctic terrain, experts say.

“Remember, transportation of the area is either by sea or by air. There are no highways,” said Steven Lamy, an international relations professor and Arctic security expert at the University of Southern California. “You can't basically get in a car or a Bradley vehicle or tank or anything and go up there. So they have dog sleds.”

In addition to these special elite forces, Denmark has several surface patrol ships and surveillance aircraft and the kingdom is moving to further strengthen its military presence around Greenland and in the wider North Atlantic. Last year, the government announced a roughly 14.6 billion-kroner ($2.3 billion) agreement with parties including the governments of Greenland and the Faroe Islands, another self-governing territory of Denmark, to “improve capabilities for surveillance and maintaining sovereignty in the region.”

The plan includes three new Arctic naval vessels, two additional long-range surveillance drones and satellite capacity.

Meanwhile, Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command is headquartered in Nuuk, the capital, and tasked with the “surveillance, assertion of sovereignty and military defense of Greenland and the Faroe Islands,” according to its website. It has smaller satellite stations across the island. Greenland also guards part of what is known as the GIUK (Greenland, Iceland, United Kingdom) Gap, where NATO monitors Russian naval movements in the North Atlantic.

The U.S. Department of Defense also operates the remote Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, which was built after the U.S. and Denmark signed the Defense of Greenland Treaty in 1951. It supports missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations for the U.S. and NATO.

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TRUMP, discussing why Greenland is part of the Danish kingdom: “The fact that they had a boat land there 500 years ago doesn’t mean that they own the land. I’m sure we had lots of boats go there also.”

THE FACTS: The first humans arrived in northern Greenland circa 2,500 B.C., traveling from what is now Canada after the narrow strait separating the island from North America froze over. The Norse explorer Erik the Red arrived circa A.D. 985 with a fleet of Viking ships, according to the medieval Icelandic sagas.

In 1721, Lutheran missionary Hans Egede arrived in Greenland and ultimately began efforts to convert the Indigenous people to Christianity, marking the start of Denmark’s modern colonization of Greenland, which formally became a Danish colony in 1814. The U.S. government recognized Denmark’s right to the whole of Greenland more than a century later.

“It’s the same logic about the U.S. and sovereignty, right? You have a couple of boats arriving from Europe and now you own the United States of America,” said Østhagen, of the Fridtjof Nansen Institute. “The Indigenous population was there before you guys."

In 2009, Greenland became a self-governing country within the Danish kingdom. The island has a right to independence when requested by local voters.

International law has developed over the centuries, pivoting from land-grabbing colonial powers to modern-day treaties honoring borders largely developed after World War II.

Ulrik Pram Gad, a senior researcher and Arctic security expert at the Danish Institute for International Studies, said postwar it has remained important, especially to the U.S., for countries to refrain from exerting power over other territories.

“We shouldn’t just grab and go to war,” he said. “Rather, it should be peoples who have their self-determination.”

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Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.

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Dazio reported from Berlin and Zhang reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.

FILE - Coloured houses covered by snow are seen from the sea in Nuuk, Greenland, on March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)

FILE - Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance tour the U.S. military's Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, March 28, 2025. (Jim Watson/Pool via AP, File)

Pituffik Space Base is pictured as Vice President JD Vance visits, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Greenland. (Jim Watson/Pool via AP)

Houses covered by snow are seen on the coast of a sea inlet of Nuuk, Greenland, on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)