Kimi Antonelli brands Max Verstappen a 'cannibal' for unsettling McLaren drivers' championship bid

Max Verstappen’s late-season charge has reopened a title fight McLaren once had complete control of. Their dominance across 2025, with seven wins each for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, put both drivers on course for a straightforward duel for the crown after sealing the constructors’ championship in Singapore.

Verstappen, though, has turned the final stretch into a three-way battle with a run of form that has undone months of McLaren comfort. The Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli summed it up by calling Verstappen a “cannibal” in his approach to the chase.

Since the summer break, the Dutchman has won three and finished on the podium in all seven races. Norris now leads with 390 points, Piastri sits on 366, and Verstappen on 341. The 100-plus-point margin he once trailed by has shrunk to just 25 behind Piastri, with three races and the Qatar sprint still to run.

Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing at Bahrain International Circuit. Source: Getty

Antonelli was asked whether anyone could predict the 2026 title picture from this point. He dismissed the idea entirely in an interview with Blick:

“No, nobody can do that right now. It’s simpler: Norris is the favorite, Piastri still has a chance, like the cannibal Verstappen. Because you can never write him off. He’s been the benchmark for years.”

Max Verstappen, despite the turnaround, was measured about his chances.

“That is a lot,” he said about the deficit, via News.Verstappen. “We have not given the championship away here. We have already lost a lot earlier simply because we were not good enough. That is how you lose a championship. Overall, they are more all-round than us. But naturally, we are going to do everything we can to win a few more races.”

The next three weekends - Las Vegas, the Qatar Sprint and Grand Prix, and Abu Dhabi - will decide the championship. McLaren’s internal momentum sits with Norris after back-to-back pole-to-flag wins at Mexico and Brazil. Oscar Piastri has slipped behind since Monza.

Max Verstappen urges Kimi Antonelli to embrace mistakes after their Interlagos fight

Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes and Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing at Interlagos. Source: Getty

Kimi Antonelli’s own season has been shaped by peaks, dips, and a steady recovery. He stepped into Lewis Hamilton’s seat with only one year of Formula 2 behind him. The Italian scored a podium in Canada, but the European rounds that followed Montreal exposed the instability Mercedes suffered with the new rear suspension.

Four consecutive non-scoring races and back-to-back DNFs in Austria and Silverstone hit his confidence before the team reversed its suspension changes. His rebound began after the summer. By Brazil, he had returned to the level expected inside Mercedes, and he now sits close to Lewis Hamilton’s 2025 points mark.

Max Verstappen pointed to that mid-season slump as a natural learning curve.

“Keep believing in yourself. In a rookie season, you go through quite an emotional rollercoaster. Some weekends go better than others. You make mistakes. You have good weekends. But at the end of the day, that’s all part of the learning curve. You have to make mistakes also to become a better driver, even in Formula 1,” he said, via Motorsports.com.

Their Interlagos fight underlined that growth. Kimi Antonelli held Max Verstappen behind for long stretches on Saturday and again on Sunday before finishing P2 to Verstappen’s P3 - his best result yet and his strongest complete weekend of the year.

In parc fermé, Verstappen pulled him into a hug, a moment that reflected the respect between the two and the frequent sight of them together around the paddock.