Pictures: Max Verstappen seen playing padel with father Jos Verstappen ahead of the F1 Hungarian GP

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The reigning F1 champion, Max Verstappen, and his father, Jos Verstappen, were seen doing some fun activities in the F1 Hungarian GP paddock. The power duo played a game of padel yesterday in the paddock.

The F1 drivers are known for playing padel as a stress relief amid the intense pressures of the pinnacle of motorsport. Max Verstappen has often been spotted on the padel court alongside fellow drivers like Lando Norris, George Russell, Carlos Sainz, among others.

It was a first that Verstappen played a game of padel with his father, Jos Verstappen. Moreover, to make it a memorable moment, the Red Bull driver has come up with a series of pictures on Instagram and added the following as a caption:

"Thursday bits from Budapest."

While Thursday was a bit of a relaxing day for the Dutchman amid the varied interview duties, the on-track action at the Hungaroring is slated to kick off quite shortly. Max Verstappen has not been happy with the RB21, which has hugely hindered his progress in the 2025 Formula 1 season.

After the first 13 rounds, Verstappen finds himself in third place in the drivers' standings, but is quite a way behind the high-flying McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

Verstappen has so far secured only 185 points (two Grand Prix wins and five podium finishes) in comparison to Norris and Piastri's 250 and 266 points.

Max Verstappen is one of the hottest drivers in the pinnacle of motorsport. In recent times, he was heavily linked with a possible switch to the Toto Wolff-led Mercedes F1 team for 2026.

However, amid all the talk, Verstappen decided to bring a stop to rumors. In an interaction, he has made it known that he will not go anywhere next year and will continue with Red Bull at least until 2026.

"It's quite interesting to follow all that [speculation] and the amount of nice stories that came out of it. But I've never really said anything about it because I was just focused on talking to the team about how we can improve our performance, future ideas for next year as well.

"But it's time to stop all the rumours and I've always been quite clear that I was staying anyway. That was also the general feeling in the team because we were always in discussions about what we could do with the car."

Max Verstappen has been making his trade in Formula 1 with the Milton Keynes-based Red Bull team since 2016. He has also won four world titles consecutively since 2021.