Inside Max Verstappen’s incredible love for his cats who are named after his favourite Monaco nightclubs
MAX VERSTAPPEN cannot get enough of his feline friends.
It turns out the Red Bull driver, who is known for his fierceness on an F1 track, is mad about cats.
The Dutchman, 26, who owned Persian cats when he was growing up, says he would “have 100” if he could.
Verstappen has since adopted two Bengal cats called Jimmy and Sassy, named after Monaco nightclubs Jimmy’z and the Sass Cafe.
The three-time world champion was once forced to rescue his pet cat by smashing through one of his doors with a HAMMER which he says nearly “broke his shoulder”.
Verstappen said that the pet had been missing for several hours before they heard it making noise in a small cupboard room.
The cat had managed to make its way into the room before jumping onto a bed which then fell, blocking the door.
Speaking on Twitch, Verstappen said: “I lost one cat for like three or four hours, I didn’t know where it was.
“I was walking around and suddenly the cat starts meowing behind a door so I was like, ‘Oh dear!’.
“It was a little closet room so it’s only a one-way entrance.
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“I’m trying to open the door but the door wasn’t want to open because a baby bed had fallen down behind the door in the storage room.
“The door was completely locked because the cat had pushed the bed down.
“There was no way to open the door. I tried everything so I had to make a lovely hole in the door with a hammer!
“The cat must have been so scared, though, with all that noise in the dark. I almost broke my shoulder trying to go through the door – it didn’t really work out.”
Verstappen continued: “So now I have a door with a massive hole in it! I tried [to take it off the hinges] but the thing is, you have to open the door slightly and unhook it.
“I’m probably not the best guy out there to repair or rip something apart. I do know that.”
Verstappen’s cat knowledge was recently put to the test in a TikTok video where he correctly named 10 out of 11 breeds.
The Dutchman also once revealed his $70 phone case with one of his pet cats on during a livestream with his gaming team Redline.
Lewis Hamilton has a pampered pooch, English bulldog Roscoe, who rides on private jets with him and is often seen at various Grands Prix.
Sadly he lost his other bulldog Coco in 2020, after the canine suffered a heart attack and passed away in his arms.
Verstappen too suffered heartbreak when his dog Spyke died aged 11, sharing a snap on Instagram of his beloved pet.
On top of that, he grew up with a cockatoo.
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc recently appeared to have taken over from Hamilton’s position as the F1 dog king.
He posted a picture of himself and new love Leo Leclerc, a miniature longhaired dachshund, on Instagram which attracted over three million likes.