Max Verstappen heavily backed as 10-year F1 streak hangs in balance

It is one of the longest winless streaks of Max Verstappen's career since joining Red Bull, and yet RacingNews365 readers are overwhelmingly confident it will not last.

In a poll asking whether the four-time world champion will claim a victory before the 2026 season is out, a commanding 83.3 per cent of voters answered yes, with just 16.7 per cent believing the Dutchman will go an entire campaign without standing on the top step of the podium for the first time since entering the sport.

And the believers have history on their side. Verstappen has won at least one grand prix in every single season since his maiden triumph at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, a run of 10 consecutive years that spans 71 career victories. 

From a single win in his debut Red Bull campaign to the record-shattering 19 victories of 2023, the streak has never been seriously threatened, until now.

11 races through the 2026 season, Verstappen sits sixth in the championship on 109 points and is yet to take a victory, with the RB22 proving the weakest Red Bull he has driven since 2015. 

A difficult start saw him finish sixth in Australia from 20th on the grid, retire from the Chinese Grand Prix and qualify and finish well outside the sharp end in Japan. 

Mid-season upgrades have at least hauled the car into podium contention, with second-place finishes in Austria and Hungary offering glimpses of the Verstappen of old, but a half-second qualifying deficit to the leading Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari packages remains.

With 11 races still to run from Zandvoort onwards, there is plenty of time, and those who voted 'yes' will be banking on Red Bull's development trajectory closing the gap just enough for Verstappen to do the rest.