‘Sleep’s Going OK?’: Max Verstappen Checks In on New Dad Charles Leclerc in Brazil

Max Verstappen caught up with Charles Leclerc at Interlagos this weekend and asked him something only another new dad would think to ask. In a clip posted on Red Bull Racing’s Instagram account, Verstappen was seen congratulating the Ferrari driver on the birth of his daughter, Bianca, and then went straight to how he was sleeping.

After Verstappen offered his congratulations, Leclerc smiled and said, “Ah, thank you.” Then Verstappen asked, “Sleep’s going OK?” and Leclerc answered, “Yeah, perfect.”

Verstappen has been through this himself, so he offered some reassurance. “It will only get better, so…” he said. Leclerc then admitted the truth: “The nights are a bit shorter now.”

Lewis Hamilton, who was standing with his teammate, couldn’t resist jumping in. He acted out the two drivers pushing baby strollers side by side. “You guys will go down like this,” he said.

Leclerc went along with the joke. “Yeah, we are neighbors, so we’ll have to,” he replied.

Verstappen knows how this goes. He and Kelly Piquet welcomed their first child together in April 2025, and he opted to miss media day to spend the initial days with his partner and their newborn baby, named Lily.

Leclerc now joins Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso, Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg as the fathers on the current F1 grid.

Charles Leclerc Goes From Mexico to Monaco to Brazil in One Week

Bianca was born on Tuesday, November 3, and Leclerc and his wife, Alexandra Leclerc, revealed the news in a post on Instagram on 4 November. Leclerc returned home to Monaco immediately after the Mexican Grand Prix to be present for the birth of his daughter.

Ferrari let him skip Thursday’s media day, and the Italian outfit picked Ferrari Driver Academy member Dino Beganovic in the opening practice session at Interlagos. Once Charles Leclerc was back in the car, he finished FP2 in P7.

“It’s a very special moment,” Leclerc said. Speaking to reporters on Friday, he said “I’ve always wanted to be a young dad,” and that he and Alex felt the time was right. Some fans have also linked the name Bianca to Leclerc’s godfather and close friend Jules Bianchi, who died in 2015.

Leclerc’s Short Nights Are For Real

Don’t take that “Yeah, perfect” too seriously. In a separate behind-the-scenes video from the fan zone, Leclerc told Hamilton he had slept for about an hour and 15 minutes, and Hamilton laughed it off: “Get used to it. I mean, no more of that 12-hour sleep.”

Sunday won’t give him much rest either. Verstappen will “start at the back of the grid for a complete power unit change,” while Hamilton and Leclerc also got grid penalties for exceeding their internal combustion engine allocation. Leclerc starts the race in P14 and Hamilton in P20.

It’s also a friendly scene after a tense few days. Only a week ago, the Ferrari drivers’ lap-one squabble effectively lost them the race to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in Mexico City. In Brazil, though, the joke was about strollers, and Leclerc seemed happy to go along with it.

Verstappen promised that it only gets better. Leclerc, running on about an hour of sleep, will find that out for himself soon enough.

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