‘Call me Chucky’: Max Verstappen revels in McLaren’s Qatar Grand Prix horror show

DOHA – Formula One champion Max Verstappen revelled in McLaren’s strategy horror show at the Qatar Grand Prix on Nov 30 as the Red Bull driver won again, days after the team’s boss compared him to a movie monster who keeps on coming back.

“He can call me Chucky,” grinned the Dutchman after winning under the Lusail floodlights from third place on the grid.

Dutchman Verstappen came home 7.995 seconds ahead of Oscar Piastri with Carlos Sainz third for Williams, ahead of Lando Norris and the Mercedes pair of Kimi Antonelli and George Russell.

It was Verstappen’s seventh win of the season, his third in succession in Qatar and 70th of his career.

McLaren, who had both cars disqualified in

Las Vegas a week earlier while Verstappen won

, had swept the front row with Piastri on pole and championship leader Norris – seeking to clinch the title – alongside the Australian.

Then it all went wrong again for the champions.

Verstappen passed Norris at the start and pitted from second on Lap 7 when the safety car was deployed, while the McLarens stayed out and paid the price – Piastri ending up second and Norris fourth.

“We should have followed him in, no? If we knew the car in front was staying out?“ asked Norris on team radio.

Norris would have won his maiden F1 crown with victory in Qatar.

That rocketed Verstappen up to second in the championship, 12 points behind Norris with only the Abu Dhabi finale remaining and four ahead of Piastri. At the end of August, the Dutch driver had been 104 points off Piastri’s lead.

“I didn’t expect to win today, that’s for sure,” Verstappen told Sky Sports.

“Looking at pure pace, we were not on the same level as McLaren, but we made the right call, as most of the grid did, in boxing under the safety car.

“That almost gives you a free pit stop and that made the race for me. For sure, that call at the pit stop made me win the race today.”

Red Bull reinforced that feeling by sending Hannah Schmitz, the team’s principal strategy engineer, up to the podium to share the 28-year-old Verstappen’s fizzy celebrations under the floodlights. 

Verstappen said he did not think McLaren had messed up by trying to be fair to both drivers, not wanting to disadvantage one over the other in the title battle if they had double-stacked them at a pit stop, but just made a wrong call.

“It was about missing the whole pit-stop opportunity,” he said.

“On pure pace they are faster, but as it showed today again, anything is possible.”

McLaren chief executive Zak Brown had likened Verstappen earlier to “that guy in a horror movie, that right as you think he’s not coming back, he’s back”.

Las Vegas was a blow and Nov 30 was a shock for McLaren, who have already won the constructors’ crown for a second year in a row.

Next weekend will truly be a nightmare if Verstappen denies them a same-season title double for the first time since Mika Hakkinen in 1998.  

“I think on pure pace it will be tough, but a race like today also shows that it’s not always straightforward, a Grand Prix, and a lot of things can happen,” said Verstappen. “So I’m probably relying a little bit on that.”

Australia’s Piastri, who had a potential win taken from him by poor decisions, said: “I’m speechless. I have no words.

“Clearly we didn’t get it right tonight. I drove the best race I could and there was nothing left out there.

“In hindsight it’s pretty obvious what we should have done, but we’ll discuss it as a team. It’s obviously tough to swallow.”

McLaren team chief Andrea Stella added: “It was a decision not to pit and in fairness we didn’t expect everyone else to pit. Obviously, once everyone pitted, it makes that the right thing to do.

“When you have the lead car, you don’t know what the others are going to do.

“The main reason was related to not expecting everyone else to pit, so it was a decision.

“And as a matter of fact, it wasn’t the correct decision.” REUTERS, AFP