Max Verstappen is aiming to win at least one race before the 2026 Formula 1 season ends, as he faces the prospect of his first win-less campaign since his debut 10 years ago. The Red Bull driver said he believes he is getting closer to a victory after a stronger run of results in recent rounds.

“I’m trying everything I can,” Verstappen said. “We are scoring quite a few podiums now, but I want to win. That’s what I’m here for. “I’m getting close, but I want at least to win one race this year. I hope we can do it at some point.”

Red Bull has improved since the start of the season. Verstappen reached the podium twice in the opening nine rounds, then finished on the rostrum in five of the following six. Both he and team-mate Isack Hadjar were on the podium at the most recent round in Baku, giving Red Bull its best result of the season so far.

Verstappen said new parts introduced on the car in Baku had worked well, while cautioning that the circuit may have suited Red Bull particularly well. The RB22’s performance there, he said, should be considered in light of Baku’s unusual layout and the team’s history at the track.

“We have some solid results. I think also the parts that we [put] on the car in Baku, they worked well,” Verstappen 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.”

Results over the rest of the season could help shape Red Bull’s decisions on its car for next year. Verstappen said the team needs to see how it performs at different types of circuit before settling on what it needs to change or develop.

“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,” he said. “Because for next year we’ll probably learn a lot now over these coming races [about] what we need, what we want to do with the car.”

Verstappen said Red Bull is not competing for the championship, making the remaining events a learning period, though he described the latest weekends as much better than the season’s opening stretch. The report was published on Oct. 1, 2026, at 10:07 by Keith Collantine, who founded RaceFans in 2005 as F1 Fanatic and began running it full-time in 2010 after working as a motoring journalist. The report also listed related coverage on the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, including track changes affecting half the field, how to watch the 2026 event, Bahrain’s effort to hold a cancelled race in October, and Formula 1’s cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix without replacement events announced.

Based on reporting by RaceFans.