F1 ace Max Verstappen confirms he's dating Kelly Piquet - ex-girlfriend of the Russian racer he replaced at Red Bull, Daniil Kvyat

Max Verstappen is unlikely to be on Russian racer Daniil Kvyat's Christmas card list this year after the man he lost his Red Bull seat to confirmed that he has now begun dating his ex-girlfriend - German-born model Kelly Piquet.

In a story eerily similar to that of the 1983 Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd comedy 'Trading Places', Russian racer Kvyat has lost out in both a professional and personal sense to Verstappen. 

First he was shunted out the door of Red Bull Racing in 2016 by his rival - and it has now been revealed that Kvyat's ex-girlfriend Picquet, the daughter of racing icon Nelson Picquet, has shacked up with Verstappen. 

Picquet dated Kvyat for three years before their split in 2019. The pair had a child together, but the 32-year-old model has entered a new relationship with Verstappen, 23, after he published an image of them together on his Instagram profile.

The picture, which was shared with Verstappen's 3.9 million followers, showed the couple in each other's arms on a beach.

"Happy New Year everyone," the smitten address read. "Let's make 2021 a year to remember in many ways. Wish you all success, love and happiness just as I found mine."

Picquet, for her part, endorsed the message with a simple love heart emoji, adding on her own account: "Love is what makes the world go round. Happy new year and much love."

Verstappen split from his previous girlfriend, Dilara Sanli, in October and has seemingly wasted little time in resuming his love life.

He made his Formula 1 debut in 2015 as a teenager and quickly usurped Kvyat at Red Bull, holding on to the seat ever since. 

Kvyat later recounted how he received the news of his replacement while sitting down to watch an episode of the popular HBO series 'Game of Thrones' - and he might have had another shock if he was scrolling through Instagram this week.