Kimi Antonelli has admitted that Max Verstappen’s remarkable late-season resurgence would be “really, really worrying” if the Red Bull driver were closer to him in the Formula 1 standings. The Mercedes driver still holds a substantial championship cushion, but Verstappen’s recent run of victories has made the Dutchman one of the strongest threats on the grid heading into Austin.
Verstappen has won the Malaysian Grand Prix, the Singapore Sprint and the Singapore Grand Prix in succession, underlining how dramatically Red Bull’s competitiveness has improved after a difficult first half of the season. Antonelli, however, remains confident that Mercedes has done enough across the year to keep control of the championship situation.
Max Verstappen revives the ‘Chucky’ nickname
Last season, as Max Verstappen produced a remarkable championship comeback against McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, McLaren CEO Zak Brown compared the Dutchman to the villain from a horror film: a character who somehow never dies and always returns to haunt his victims.
In 2025, Lando Norris eventually found the happy ending to that particular horror story, winning the World Championship by just two points after coming dangerously close to losing it.
This year, Kimi Antonelli does not face the same level of danger because Max Verstappen sits 119 points behind with only a handful of Grands Prix remaining. Nevertheless, Verstappen’s recent revival has inevitably sent a warning to the rest of the field.
After struggling throughout the first part of the season, Max Verstappen and Red Bull have returned to winning form and once again look capable of becoming a serious threat every race weekend.
‘Chucky’, the nickname Verstappen jokingly adopted for himself following Zak Brown’s comparison, is very much still alive.
Kimi Antonelli admits Verstappen’s form would be worrying in a closer title fight
Kimi Antonelli, who enjoys a strong relationship with Max Verstappen away from the circuit as well as on it, joked to Sky Sports F1 about how frightening it would be to have the Red Bull driver closer in the championship while performing at such a high level.
“I know it would be really scary,” Kimi Antonelli said with a smile. “It would be really, really worrying, but overall I think we are doing a great job and, if you look at the season as a whole, we have always been in the fight.”
The size of Antonelli’s advantage therefore gives Mercedes valuable protection against Verstappen’s late-season surge. Even with Red Bull now appearing capable of fighting at the front consistently, the championship leader still has a considerable margin in hand.
Mercedes still working to understand its latest package
Antonelli also acknowledged that Mercedes is still trying to understand its latest technical package after encountering difficulties during the Singapore weekend.
“Obviously we have had a fantastic car and now we are trying to understand this new package,” Kimi Antonelli continued. “But I am very proud of the team this weekend because we overcame the difficulties and we started to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
“So it is just a matter of time. Now we go to Austin, which is a normal weekend, a standard weekend, where hopefully we can make a lot of changes and understand this package better.”
Austin gives Mercedes more time to work
The United States Grand Prix will offer Mercedes a more conventional weekend structure, giving the team greater opportunity to experiment with the W17 and better understand the latest package.
That could prove important as Red Bull continues to apply pressure at the front. Verstappen’s recent form has shown that the competitive picture has changed significantly, but Antonelli’s championship advantage means the Italian can approach Austin without the same urgency he would face in a much tighter title battle.
For now, the priority is clear: Mercedes wants to improve its understanding of the car while keeping Max Verstappen at a safe distance in the championship standings.
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