‘Call me Chucky’: Verstappen leans into the villain role as title chase goes to the wire
Zak Brown tried a horror analogy. Max Verstappen went full franchise.
“He can call me Chucky,” Verstappen grinned in Qatar, happily embracing McLaren’s description of a championship foe who simply refuses to die. It’s hard to argue with the imagery. From 104 points adrift in late summer to just 12 behind heading into the finale, the Red Bull driver has lurched back into the frame like a low-budget slasher who somehow keeps finding the keys.
Brown’s line — “He’s like that guy in a horror movie, that right as you think he’s not coming back, he’s back!” — landed earlier in the week. Verstappen’s response landed on track. The reigning four-time champion has dragged a once-laboured RB21 into title contention with a string of results built on ruthless execution more than raw dominance.
“I thought it was quite funny,” Verstappen said of the horror-movie tag. “From my side, I just focus on myself. I know that when I go in the car, I just try to do the best — like everyone does. That’s the only thing I can control.”
That line tells part of the story. The other part is the bit Red Bull don’t usually talk about mid-season: the wobble. There was a moment, Verstappen admits, when the title felt too far gone to chase and the team’s energy drifted towards the longer game.
“In the middle of the season, at some point, it was almost — not like you lose motivation — but you don’t really see a way forward of actually winning again this season,” he said. “It’s almost like you have to hope that 2026 would be better.”
And yet here we are, heading to Abu Dhabi with Verstappen within a dozen points of the leader and Oscar Piastri still sniffing around the edges of the conversation. For a team that’s spent years winning on Sundays by second nature, this surge has been a little different — part car, part calls, part sheer bloody-mindedness.
“We definitely made some really good steps with the car,” Verstappen said. “And we’ve also won races where maybe we shouldn’t have, by making the right call as a team. Then it’s up to me to execute it. The way I work with my race engineer, with GP, and the guys in the background… we’re well integrated. We know exactly what to ask of each other. That helps when you’re not the quickest, but you still maximise everything you’ve got.”
Strip away the headlines and the Halloween jokes, and the stakes are simple. Verstappen is chasing a fifth consecutive title. McLaren, resurgent and occasionally rattled, have carried the fight this far with Lando Norris in front and Piastri punching at key moments. But recent weekends have cost them: a handful of operational mis-steps, a couple of strategy plays that backfired, and a Red Bull team rediscovering its timing when it mattered.
There’s also the Verstappen factor — the one rivals don’t enjoy admitting. The Dutchman’s been better at salvaging big points on off-days than anyone else in this fight. That’s how you erase a triple-digit deficit in a hurry: you don’t wait for a purple patch; you bank podiums while the others blink.
It’s not all muscle and menace. Verstappen’s language around this push hints at a driver who’s taken to the grind as much as the glory — an 11th season’s worth of scar tissue turning into a calmer hand on the wheel.
“Every year, you become a bit more all-round,” he said. “Even in the championship years, there are always things you look back at and think, ‘I could have done a bit more there.’ It can be how you set up the car, execution in a race, the way you work with the team.”
This weekend, it becomes simple again. McLaren need to halt the momentum, control the chaos and keep their man out front. Red Bull need to do the opposite and keep the pressure dial right where it is. And Verstappen? He’s happy to be the bad guy in someone else’s script if it means holding a fifth crown by Sunday night.
Horror movies usually end with one last jump scare. Given the way this season has bent back on itself, don’t bet against one more.
