‘He can call me Chucky’ – Max Verstappen reacts to Zak Brown’s ‘horror movie’ comment

Max Verstappen has told Zak Brown “he can call me Chucky” after the McLaren CEO said Verstappen was like a “guy in a horror movie.”

Doing his best impression of a zombie, Verstappen has risen from the metaphorical dead to be 12 points off the Championship lead heading into the final race, prompting Brown’s comparison.

Max Verstappen responds to Zak Brown ‘horror movie’ comment

Having at one point been 104 points off the lead, Verstappen is in with a chance of securing a fifth consecutive world title this weekend, and Brown is all too aware of the threat.

Speaking ahead of the Qatar GP, the McLaren boss suggested Verstappen was like a character from a horror movie.

“He’s like that guy in a horror movie, that right as you think he’s not coming back, he’s back!” Brown said on the Sports Agents podcast.

Now, with Lando Norris’ points lead cut even more, Verstappen is happy to play up to the role.

Although Verstappen was 104 points down on P1 after the Dutch Grand Prix, the Red Bull heads into the season finale with a shot at the title.

“He can call me Chucky,” he joked when asked of Brown’s comments.

“I saw it as well. I thought it was quite funny. 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, I guess, everyone does. But, yeah, that’s the only thing I can control, right? And that’s the only thing I focus on.”

The unlikely nature of this title push was not lost on Verstappen either, who commented that there was a point where the team was not focusing on winning races anymore.

More on the title race from PlanetF1.com

👉 How Lando Norris, Max Verstappen or Oscar Piastri can win the F1 world title in Abu Dhabi
👉 McLaren to hold ‘very thorough review’ over ‘significantly penalising’ Qatar GP mistake
👉 New Qatar Grand Prix evidence emerges after Lando Norris conspiracy theory

“Honestly, it’s been very strong, but that’s also something that I demand of myself after basically 11 years in Formula 1,” he said.

“Every year, I think you become a bit more all-around. Even in the championship years, there are always things that you look back at and you’re like ‘I could have learned a bit more’ or ‘I could have done a bit more there.’

“And this can go from how you set up the car, what you did yourself in terms of execution in a race, or the way that you work together with the team. This year, we just had a really tough first half of the season, as everyone knows.

“At the same time, I think we can be really proud of it because 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 in this season. It’s almost like you have to hope that 2026 would be better.

“But we definitely made some really good steps with the car, and in some weekends, for sure, we were in a very competitive state, I would say, where we could win races. But at the same time, we’ve also won races where maybe we shouldn’t have, like today, by making the right call as a team.

“And then, of course, it’s still up to me to execute it in the best way possible. But that’s, at the end of the day, also a proper team effort. The way I work with my race engineer, with GP, and also the guys in the background—the whole team very close to me—I think we’re really well integrated, and we know exactly what we need to ask of each other.

“That probably helps also when you’re in a battle like this, when you’re not the quickest, but you still pretty much maximise everything you’ve got.”

Read next: Qatar GP conclusions: Mindless McLaren, Piastri turns Norris tables, Hamilton bombshell?