Guenther Steiner forecasts a winless 2026 F1 season for Max Verstappen

Former Haas Formula 1 team principal Guenther Steiner believes four-time world champion Max Verstappen will fail to win a grand prix in 2026, citing Red Bull’s lack of competitiveness.

Verstappen is currently sixth in the championship standings on 145 points, 147 behind leader Kimi Antonelli. His strongest results this season have been second-place finishes at the Spanish, Austrian and Hungarian Grands Prix.

Speaking on The Red Flags Podcast after the Spanish Grand Prix, Steiner was asked during the show’s “Gas or Brake” segment whether Verstappen would end the 2026 campaign without a victory.

“Gas, he will not. Mercedes and McLaren are too strong, and it’s just the car,” the former Haas team boss said. “He’s not good enough. He will be Super Max, he will be on the podium, but I think that’s the limit. That’s the limit of that car.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

At the race in Madrid, Verstappen inherited second place after polesitter Lando Norris lost the lead during an ill-timed virtual safety car period and a slow pit stop. With overtaking extremely difficult on the new circuit, Verstappen held position ahead of Norris to complete the race in second.

After the event, Verstappen told Sky Sports that Red Bull remained significantly off the pace of McLaren and Mercedes.

“It’s just looking at the lap times, we are quite a bit down still,” he said. “It’s a mix of a lot of things, for sure maybe a little bit of deployment, but also the car itself that we still need to improve on, because when Lando was behind me he was flying. He was a lot faster, but just because of the nature of the track he couldn’t get by.”

The 15th round of the 2026 season, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, is scheduled to take place from 24-26 September at the Baku City Circuit.

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