Max Verstappen signals greatest Red Bull desire as drought continues

Max Verstappen has highlighted his goal of chasing a first win of the 2026 season, despite a run of podium finishes that has kept Red Bull in the constructors' championship picture.

The four-time world champion finished second in Baku last time out, just 0.196 seconds behind race winner George Russell, but the result extended his winless run to 15 rounds. 

Verstappen sits sixth in the drivers' standings on 163 points, some 139 behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli, with Mercedes having won 11 of the 15 races held so far.

Red Bull has slipped to fourth in the constructors' standings, behind Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren, as the Milton Keynes-based team has struggled to match the development pace of its rivals through 2026. 

The Dutchman has nonetheless kept Red Bull competitive on raw pace in recent rounds, converting that into a string of podium finishes even as outright wins have eluded him.

"Unfortunately, we're not outscoring Mercedes. They are actually the fastest ones, or at least they were for most of the season," Verstappen told media including RacingNews365.

"I'm trying everything I can. We are scoring quite a few podiums now, but I want to win.

"That's what I'm here for and I'm getting close, but I want to at least win one race this year. So, I hope we can do it at some point, but we have some solid results."

Verstappen cautious over Malaysia chances

Red Bull brought a revised floor, diffuser and sidepod package to Baku, along with updated mirror and halo profiling aimed at improving downstream airflow. 

The upgrades appeared to pay off on a circuit that has traditionally suited Red Bull's low-drag philosophy, with its long main straight and 90-degree corners rewarding traction over high-speed cornering performance.

But Verstappen was cautious about reading too much into the result, pointing out that Baku's characteristics do not necessarily reflect what lies ahead on the calendar.

"I think also the parts that we got on the car in Baku, they worked well," he said.

"But we also know that Baku always has been quite a good track to us. It's quite unique with the 90-degree corners.

"You don't really have a lot of high-speed corners, so we have to wait a little bit now in the coming races [to see] how our car is going to perform, which is also quite good for us probably, to see all these different kinds of tracks.

"For next year, we'll probably learn a lot now over these coming races of what we need, what we want to do with the car.

"We're anyway not fighting for the championship, so for us it's a big learning curve. But, of course, the last few weekends have been a lot better than the start of the season."