Hello ☺️

17.07.2026 Interview with Play Sports

You became a father last year. I did too, in September. You're having a special first child. Everyone always says that. It changes a lot in your life. Yes, but it is true, isn't it? How has that changed you? Because for me, it has had a gigantic impact on my life.

Max: Yes, I already had a stepdaughter, of course. And that was from her first year, so to speak. Yes. So I’ve already experienced a lot, so to speak. And because of that, I think it was, so to speak, less shocking. Because ultimately, in our family, in our daily life, nothing really changed. (...) Of course, the very first for me. But yes, in terms of daily life and how we did things, so to speak, that was already the case now. Yes, you furnished an extra room for her. And of course, that first year of life is perhaps a bit harder to sleep in. And a bit more complicated. But generally speaking, it went pretty smoothly.

Maybe it isn't incredibly hard on a weekend like that? You were away for eight days last month, and that gets worse and worse, doesn't it?

Max: Yes, fortunately, you can FaceTime, of course. But for example, you sometimes get videos. And I have my own room now where I keep, let's say, my cups and helmets and my simulators. And she already knows that that is my room. So every time she goes there now, because she can walk now and she opens that door. And then it's like, 'Papa, papa.' But yeah, he's not there, of course. And then I get that video forwarded to me. Then you do think…

It breaks your heart a little bit?

Max: Yeah, then you do think, 'Shit. Yeah, do something.' Yeah, that is a bit less nice to see, of course. Then you naturally always try to get back home as quickly as possible.

Do you both have that, by the way? Maybe a question for you both. I want my children to race. You don't have any yet. You have a daughter now. Would you like that?

Day 2 of the Sepang Test, 2026

What is it about Shane that you love and were drawn to? He is hyper competent at this one thing. He’s stereotypically masculine in a lot of regards. He’s a kind person, and he’s so overtly Canadian. He’s harboring something that he thinks is a career-ending secret because he just doesn’t have the emotional maturity or societal maturity to sort of understand what his own queerness means. To him, it’s most likely detrimental, which is the wrong assumption to some degree, but it shatters his own idea of what his masculinity is, or at least it cripples it. And yet, he still never harms a fly. (via The Hollywood Reporter)