Max Verstappen is a racing driver competing in the 2026 FIA Formula 1 World Championship for Red Bull, car number 3, and under contract to the team through 2030. Eleven rounds into the season he sits sixth in the championship with 109 points: four podiums, back-to-back second places at Spielberg and Budapest, but no win yet, and three retirements that have stunted his challenge.
Four Titles and a Drought
No driver has dominated an era quite like Verstappen dominated his. Promoted to Red Bull mid-2016 as an 18-year-old, he won his very first race for the team and has finished every season since with at least one victory — ten consecutive winning seasons from 2016 to 2025. The peak came in 2023, when he won 19 of 22 grands prix in one of the most one-sided campaigns the sport has seen. Four consecutive world titles followed between 2021 and 2024, and his 71 career wins put him third on the all-time list behind Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher.
2026 is the first real test of that legacy's second act. The car has not given him a winning tool — he has been blunt that the new-spec machines are "a joke" to drive — and his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase is set to leave for McLaren in 2028. Red Bull's answer was to double down: a contract extension to the end of 2030, framed by both sides as the rest of his career.
2026 Season Log
| Rd | Race | Result | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Melbourne | P6 | 8 |
| 2 | Shanghai | Retired | 0 |
| 3 | Suzuka | P8 | 4 |
| 4 | Miami | P5 | 10 |
| 5 | Montreal | P3 | 15 |
| 6 | Monte Carlo | Retired | 0 |
| 7 | Barcelona | P4 | 12 |
| 8 | Spielberg | P2 | 18 |
| 9 | Silverstone | Retired | 0 |
| 10 | Spa | P3 | 15 |
| 11 | Budapest | P2 | 18 |
Career by the Numbers
| Season | Team | Starts | Wins | Podiums | Best |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Red Bull | 11 | 0 | 4 | P2 |
| 2025 | Red Bull | 24 | 8 | 15 | P1 |
| 2024 | Red Bull | 24 | 9 | 14 | P1 |
| 2023 | Red Bull | 22 | 19 | 21 | P1 |
| 2022 | Red Bull | 22 | 15 | 17 | P1 |
| 2021 | Red Bull | 22 | 10 | 18 | P1 |
Career stats via the Jolpica/Ergast API, updated after Round 11 (Budapest). Pole totals include sprint-shootout poles, per site methodology. Starts count race entries from 2015.
The 2026 Season So Far
Verstappen's year has been podium-solid but win-free: thirds in Montreal and Spa, seconds at Spielberg and Budapest, and retirements in Shanghai, Monte Carlo and Silverstone that broke his momentum each time it built. At 110 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli, the title is slipping out of reach; the realistic targets are a first win of the season and reclaiming ground on Leclerc and Norris directly ahead of him in the standings. The underlying pace has not disappeared: when the car has let him finish in 2026, he has never crossed the line lower than eighth, and the Spielberg and Budapest runner-up finishes are the kind of relentless Sunday afternoons that built his title years.
The wider picture is equally sobering for Milton Keynes. Red Bull sit fourth in the constructors' standings on 177 points — 202 behind Mercedes — and Verstappen's 109 of them are more than half the team's total, with team-mate Isack Hadjar contributing the other 68. The RB19-era dominance feels a long way away; the 2030 contract is the bet that it comes back. You can model exactly what he needs from the remaining rounds in our championship calculator, or read the full story in our 2026 mid-season review.