Two straight wins usually earn a team the favorite tag in Formula 1. One outfit at the front of the grid is in no hurry to accept it.
Red Bull has played down growing talk around the paddock that it is now the team to beat for the rest of the 2026 season. Its team boss instead pointed to how quickly the competitive order has shifted this year.
Why do rivals think Red Bull is the team to beat?
The results speak loudly. Max Verstappen won in Malaysia and then dominated the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026. Before that, he finished second to George Russell at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The two wins in a row also marked a milestone. They were the team’s first consecutive victories since it began running an engine of its own.
Several rival drivers, including some from Mercedes and McLaren, said after Singapore that the team had moved ahead of the pack. That kind of praise from competitors rarely comes so openly in the middle of a title fight.
How did the Red Bull boss respond?
With caution. The team principal acknowledged that the car had the pace to win in each of the last three races and turned that speed into two victories. He described it as the first time all season that the team held the outright performance edge.
He also noted that the three circuits differ enough to suggest the car should stay competitive on other types of tracks, a view the team shares internally. Still, he stressed that nothing is guaranteed.
His reasoning comes from what he has watched all year. McLaren strung together consecutive wins earlier in the season and then faded. Mercedes enjoyed very dominant stretches before running into its own struggles. In his view, every weekend remains a fight to extract the most from the car.
What does the championship leader make of it?
The driver leading the standings joked that he was glad Verstappen started the year so far off the pace. He admitted the idea of the Dutchman being closer in the title race was a frightening one.
He believes the recent swing comes from a mix of factors. Mercedes, he said, has mostly failed to get the maximum from its new upgrade package. At the same time, he credited Red Bull with a big step forward and said Verstappen now looks more comfortable in the car.
Verstappen remains 119 points behind in the standings, which makes a title challenge a long shot this late in the year.
The Mercedes pair still sits first and second in the drivers’ standings, so any late charge from Verstappen would likely shape race results more than the championship itself.
Could the pecking order change again?
Yes, and the Red Bull boss believes it could happen quickly.
The team has finished its development program for the season, meaning no more new parts are coming. Rivals may still bring upgrades of their own, and he warned that the order could shift rapidly if several of them do.
That leaves Red Bull in an unusual spot. It may have the quickest car at the moment but has no more upgrades planned to protect that advantage.
The next test comes at the United States Grand Prix in Austin on Oct. 25, a track with very different demands from the tight streets of Marina Bay. Another strong result there would strengthen the case that Red Bull has turned a corner.
A slip, though, would back up the warning from its own boss. In a season this unpredictable, Red Bull appears content to let the results do the talking.
