Verstappen: 'I'm getting close' to ending 2026 winless run with 'at least one' victory
Verstappen refuses to settle for podiums as Red Bull close the gap
Max Verstappen has declared he is "getting close" to a first victory of the 2026 season, with the four-time World Champion insisting he still wants to top the podium at least once before the campaign ends.
Red Bull sit fourth in the Constructors' standings after a trickier first half of the year than their rivals at the front, but a recent upturn has lifted spirits in the Milton Keynes camp. The squad's progress peaked with a 2-3 result in Azerbaijan, where Verstappen was denied a maiden 2026 win by less than two tenths of a second by George Russell.
Speaking on media day at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, Verstappen acknowledged that while he alone has outscored Ferrari and McLaren across the last three rounds, the gap to the outright pace-setters remains.
"Unfortunately, we're not outscoring Mercedes," said Verstappen. "They're actually the fastest ones, or at least they were for most of the season. But yeah, 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 at least to win one race this year, so I hope we can do it of course at some point. We have some solid results.
"I think also the parts that we got on the car in Baku worked well, 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."
A learning curve as eyes turn to 2027
Verstappen conceded that the remaining races offer valuable data for next season, with Red Bull out of championship contention and free to experiment.
"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 kind of tracks, because for next year we'll probably learn," he explained. "We'll 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 at the start of the season."
With Mercedes bringing an upgrade to the Bahrain Grand Prix, Verstappen was realistic about the prospect of overhauling the Silver Arrows in 2026.
"Yeah, probably [2027 is the key motivator]," he said. "I mean, normally, if you bring an upgrade, it should go faster, so with them already being at the pace that they are, it will probably be very tricky. But yeah, it doesn't matter. Every single weekend, we'll try and do our best and we'll see where that leads us this weekend."
Fond memories of Sepang
The Dutchman, 29, is the most recent driver to win at the Sepang International Circuit during its final F1 event in 2017, and he holds warm memories of the venue despite its physical demands.
"I always enjoyed racing here because I think I really liked the track layout," Verstappen said. "It was not very straightforward because there's always high degradation, hot in general, so quite uncomfortable in a way to drive physically. But yeah, great memories."