For McLaren, Max Verstappen is a horror movie

This was confessed by none other than Zak Brown, the executive director of the Woking team, when referring to the Dutchman’s comeback in the final stretch of the tournament.

After the Dutch GP, marked as the 15th round of the 2025 season, everything suggested that Max Verstappen was definitely out of the fight for the crown. He had barely had two wins this year, the performance of his Red Bull was far from being as competitive as he expected and he left Zandvoort 104 points behind Oscar Piastri! However…

The Dutch race marked the return of the World Cup after the summer break. From Milton Keynes they opted to play one last card and in Monza, the next race after Zandvoort, they introduced a package of improvements that focused on the bottom to improve the loading. AND The four-time champion began to come back. Victory in Italy, Azerbaijan, second in Singapore, victory in the United States, third in Mexico, podium in San Pablo (started 17th) and victory in Las Vegas. The impressive comeback of the Austrian team driver, added to the double exclusion that McLaren experienced due to technique in the city of sin, left Verstappen 24 points behind Norris, tied with Piastri, with two dates to go.

Zak Brown, CEO of the Woking team, He spoke on the Sports Agents podcast about the champion’s comeback and drew a comparison that generated noise: “It’s like that guy in a horror movie. Just when you think it’s not going to come back, it comes back,” he said. He quickly showered praise on McLaren’s only rival this year: “What an incredible talent! He never makes mistakes. He takes advantage of every opportunity.”

The American priest never trusted the possibility of Max raising the flag of surrender, not even when he was 104 units from Pisatri. “We never thought he was out,” he said. “When we were 104 points ahead of Max, people thought: ‘This is done’. We never thought it was a fait accompli and here we are. This is sport. How many sports have we seen this in?” Brown concluded.

Although the gap was below the points awarded by a race, Norris’ advantage is still important. In fact, even if Verstappen won the 58 points left at stake (25 for each race plus the eight from the Qatar sprint), he should expect the Englishman to have some problem. If Lando stretches his light by two points at the close of the Doha event, everything will be over. If not, the decision will remain for Abu Dhabi with the peace of mind that if he finishes third in each competition (including the short one on Saturday in Qatar) he will be champion.