Max Verstappen described his win at the Malaysian round of the Bahrain Grand Prix as a "truly special and emotional moment" after Red Bull secured their first victory of the 2026 season. The Dutch driver was in commanding form, expertly navigating the mixed‑weather track and the safety‑car restarts to edge out championship leader Kimi Antonelli, extending his remarkable streak of at least one win per season since he joined Red Bull in 2016. Just two months earlier, Verstappen's future had been the subject of intense speculation.
During the summer break he signed a fresh contract that ties him to Red Bull until at least the end of 2030, and the Malaysian success underscored why the driver continues to place his confidence in the Milton Keynes outfit. Having missed out on a fifth world title by a narrow two‑point margin last year, it became evident that Verstappen would not be able to fight for the championship this season for the first time since 2020.
The team’s partnership with Ford produced a new power unit that the FIA quickly identified as the benchmark after the first ADUO (Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities) assessment. Yet the chassis, the RB22, proved to be the Achilles' heel at the start of the year, leaving the car unpredictable and difficult to drive.
Verstappen is renowned for extracting the maximum from any machinery, but even he admitted he struggled to find confidence in the RB22’s erratic handling, managing only a single podium in the opening seven races. Red Bull responded with a substantial upgrade package introduced at the Austrian Grand Prix in June. The package shed excess weight and re‑shaped the aerodynamic profile, delivering an immediate performance boost.
The effect was clear. In Austria Verstappen finished a close second, just under two seconds behind race‑winner George Russell. A week later at Silverstone he was on course for a podium before a rear‑wing failure forced his retirement.
He then collected two more podiums before the summer break, in Belgium and Hungary. A rare mistake at his home event in Zandvoort saw him crash out on the first lap, but he quickly rebounded with podium finishes in Monza and the newly added Madrid race.
Further upgrades arrived for the Baku sprint, where Verstappen was only two‑tenths of a second behind Russell in what became the closest finish in Formula 1 since 2002. Aside from the incidents in Britain and the Netherlands, Verstappen has stood on the podium in the remaining seven races since the Austrian upgrades, highlighting a clear upward trajectory for the team. "We had a very complicated and tough start to the year with all sorts of problems and just not being competitive enough," Verstappen reflected.
"But throughout the year, the team has been working very hard to understand our issues and bring good performance upgrades to the car and make it more driveable. Step by step, we've been getting closer and closer, and Sunday – especially this whole weekend – we've been really in good form, so it's amazing." He added, "Very enjoyable to win here and also have our first victory for our own engine. It's an incredible project with a lot of partners and a lot of people that are dedicated to be where we are now, so a fantastic feeling." Much of the credit goes to former team principal Christian Horner, whose vision for the Red Bull‑Ford powertrain has exceeded expectations in its debut campaign as an engine supplier.
However, Horner’s final years at the team were marked by internal turmoil after the death of co‑founder Dietrich Mateschitz in 2022, leading to a power struggle and the departure of several key figures, including legendary designer Adrian Newey, chief engineering officer Rob Marshall, sporting director Jonathan Wheatley, advisor Helmut Marko, and eventually Horner himself. These departures raised questions about Verstappen’s future with Red Bull for the 2024 and 2025 seasons, especially after a public falling‑out between his father Jos Verstappen and Horner. The situation began to stabilise when Laurent Mekies took over as team principal in July 2025.
Mekies, a French engineer with a strong technical background, appears to have forged a more harmonious relationship with the Verstappen camp, earning Max’s respect for his engineering insight. In the twelve months following Mekies’s appointment, Red Bull found a surge of performance that propelled Verstappen to eight consecutive podiums, including four wins, and unexpectedly pushed Lando Norris into title contention.
While it is difficult to quantify exactly how much of this resurgence is attributable to Mekies, the rapid development and consistent upgrades this season clearly reflect his leadership. After the Malaysian victory, Mekies said, "The credit goes to all the people involved who have been working incredibly hard on this project over the past five years.
Everyone in Milton Keynes and at the track deserves this moment and should celebrate it as an important step towards many more victories in the future. This result confirms the progress we have been making in recent months. We were already close several times, and today we converted that pace. The team has been working tirelessly to improve our package, and weekends like this are the reward for that effort." It is still too early to declare whether Verstappen’s long‑term commitment to Red Bull was the right decision; only the results of the 2027 season will provide a definitive answer.
Nevertheless, the combination of Mekies as team principal, the trusted technical director Pierre Wache, and chief performance engineer Ben Waterhouse—both of whom have been with Red Bull for over a decade—forms a solid foundation for rebuilding a new Red Bull era centred around Verstappen. "Everyone is contributing a lot and always trying to find performance, upgrades and push the team forward," Verstappen told Sky Sports F1. "In Baku we were quick in the corners but not on the straights compared to Mercedes.
In Malaysia, we were decent in the corners and quick on the straights. Sometimes we just need to understand the whole package – why we are quick, why we were not so quick and take it step by step." Red Bull has a storied history of developing competitive cars, and this season appears to be another chapter in that tradition.
With seven races remaining, there is little reason to doubt that Verstappen will add to his 72 career victories. Malaysia served as a reminder that the Red Bull‑Verstappen partnership remains a formidable force, one that may have been momentarily dormant but is now clearly awake and ready to contend for more triumphs. The championship moves next to Singapore for the final sprint weekend of the season, with action slated to begin on Friday and broadcast live on Sky Sports F1.
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