Max Verstappen leans into horror villain role after Zak Brown's comments ring true

Max Verstappen shrugged off Zak Brown’s “horror movie” jibe after punishing McLaren’s Qatar GP strategy horror to drag the title fight to an Abu Dhabi showdown

After stealing another win from the McLaren team at the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix, Max Verstappen responded to Zak Brown's description of him as a 'horror movie' villain, joking that the team can call him "Chucky" as the 2025 title fight heads to Abu Dhabi.

Speaking in the press conference after his win in Qatar, the reigning champion was asked about the comments made by the McLaren Racing CEO, who had likened the driver to a character in a horror film that "keeps coming back".

"You can call me Chucky," he laughed. "I don’t know, I mean I saw it as well, I thought it was quite funny.

"From my side I just focus on myself, you know… I know that when I go in the car, I just try to do the best like I guess everyone does. That’s the only thing that I can control, right? And that’s the only thing that I focus on.”

Verstappen's win came after McLaren failed to pit its drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri under a safety car, triggered by contact between Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly. While the rest of the field pitted for fresh tyres, both papaya-clad drivers stayed out, leaving them out of sync with the rest of the grid.

This left them vulnerable, and eventually Piastri fell from first to second while Norris slipped from third to fourth.

Watch: F1 Update: McLaren explains its strategy blunder in Qatar GP, Red Bull driver decision imminently

Brown's earlier comments, then, were not far off the mark, with him labelling the decision not to pit as a "huge mistake" that cost his team a win and likely a double podium, while Verstappen was able to capitalise on this poor strategy.

The Dutchman now sits just 12 points off the championship leader as they head to Abu Dhabi, but despite this, he insists he's relaxed.

"I'm a lot more relaxed now. I know that I'm 12 points down. I go in there with just positive energy, I try everything I can but at the same time if I don't win it, I still know that I had an amazing season. So it doesn't really matter,” he said. “It takes a lot of the pressure off. I'm just out there having a good time like I had today.

"I also started today with 'oh, we'll see how it goes.' I know that when I sit in the car I will always maximise everything I can and that's what I'll try to do also in Abu Dhabi. But at the same time, I also know that we need to rely on probably some external factors to have a go at it.

"But a race like today shows that we think it's going to be boring and straightforward. It's not, so I'm hoping that Abu Dhabi is going to be similar."