Max Verstappen still has one clear objective for the remainder of the 2026 Formula 1 season: win a race. After Red Bull’s encouraging performance in Baku and its latest power-unit updates, the four-time world champion arrives at Sepang hoping the team’s recent progress can be confirmed on a very different type of circuit.
At the same time, Red Bull is increasingly using the closing rounds of the season as an opportunity to understand what it needs for 2027. With the championship no longer realistically within reach, every race weekend now offers valuable information about the direction the team should follow with its next car.
Max Verstappen returns to Sepang with unfinished business
Thursday in Formula 1 usually means two things: media commitments and the feeling that the race weekend has truly begun. This time, attention is on the Bahrain Grand Prix, which is being held in Malaysia at Sepang, a circuit absent from the Formula 1 calendar since 2017.
The last Formula 1 winner at Sepang was Max Verstappen, who at the time had yet to claim his first world championship. After playing a leading role in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at Baku, the Dutch driver discussed both his expectations for the coming weekend and Red Bull’s season so far.
The exceptional 2026 event is being held at Sepang while retaining its Bahrain Grand Prix identity, with the Malaysian venue hosting Formula 1 for the first time since 2017. A full Bahrain Grand Prix at Sepang circuit and weekend guide covers the unusual arrangement.
Max Verstappen’s difficult 2026 season begins to improve
It has been an inconsistent season for Max Verstappen and certainly not one that matched the expectations created by Red Bull’s previous campaigns.
The new regulations and the characteristics of the latest cars have not always suited the Dutch driver’s preferred driving style. Even when that has been less apparent in race conditions, qualifying has repeatedly caused difficulties.
More specifically, Max Verstappen has suffered from problems related to the software controlling battery management. The issue appeared again during the Azerbaijan weekend, when he qualified eighth, behind his team-mate.
The race was a completely different story. The four-time world champion quickly moved towards the leading positions and eventually finished second, less than one second behind George Russell.
Red Bull’s Baku power-unit updates delivered encouraging signs
That performance was helped partly by Baku traditionally suiting Red Bull. Max Verstappen acknowledged that the circuit’s characteristics, particularly its abundance of 90-degree corners and limited high-speed sections, have historically worked well for the team.
Red Bull had also introduced power-unit updates, involving four components including the internal combustion engine, while leaving the MGU-K unchanged.
Across the last three rounds, Max Verstappen has scored more points than Ferrari and McLaren combined. When that statistic was put to him, however, his attention immediately returned to Mercedes.
“Unfortunately, we’re not scoring more points than Mercedes,” Max Verstappen said. “They are the fastest, or at least they have been for most of the season. But yes, I’m trying everything I can. We’re getting several podiums now, but I want to win.”
Looking back at Baku, he added: “I think the new parts we brought to the car in Baku worked well, although we know it has always been a favourable track for us. It’s quite a unique circuit, with 90-degree corners and almost no high-speed sections.”
Red Bull uses 2026 as a development platform for 2027
With fewer and fewer races remaining, Max Verstappen and Red Bull are well aware that they are no longer fighting for the championship. That makes the remaining weekends increasingly valuable as preparation for 2027.
Different circuit layouts will allow Red Bull to gather information and establish whether the improvements seen recently can be reproduced under different aerodynamic and mechanical demands.
“We need to wait for the next races to understand how our car behaves,” Max Verstappen explained. “It will be a useful test on different types of circuit because it will allow us to learn a lot for next year.”
He continued: “We’ll understand what we need and in which direction we want to develop the car. In any case, we’re not fighting for the championship, so for us it’s an important learning curve. But without doubt, the last few weekends have been considerably better than the start of the championship.”
Red Bull therefore has not stopped thinking about 2026, but its position on track and in the standings naturally makes preparation for next season increasingly important.
The gap to Mercedes is considered impossible to recover. Max Verstappen also accepts that further upgrades from the championship-leading team would only make the task more difficult.
“When you bring an upgrade, in theory you should go faster, so with the pace Mercedes has already shown, it will be very difficult to challenge them,” he said. “But it doesn’t really matter. Every single weekend we’ll try to give our maximum and we’ll see where this weekend takes us.”
Max Verstappen still wants one thing from 2026: a victory
Max Verstappen remains the most recent winner of a Formula 1 race held at Sepang, and his memories of the Malaysian circuit remain positive.
“I’ve always enjoyed racing here because I love the layout of the track,” Max Verstappen said.
“It was never an easy weekend because of the high tyre degradation and the extreme heat, which made it a very physically demanding race. But I have wonderful memories.”
Sepang presents a completely different technical challenge from Azerbaijan. The circuit demands high downforce and a stable, well-planted rear end rather than the particular compromise required by Baku.
The real difficulty will be finding the correct overall balance, especially when it comes to tyre management. Sepang is highly demanding, with significant asphalt abrasion and major loads placed on the tyres.
Those characteristics make the weekend an important test of whether Red Bull’s Baku improvements are genuinely transferable to other types of circuit.
For Max Verstappen, however, the personal objective remains unchanged. He wants to win at least one Grand Prix before the 2026 season ends.
There can be no certainty that he will achieve it, but Sepang provides another important opportunity. The weekend should show whether Red Bull’s Baku updates can continue to deliver progress on a circuit with very different characteristics and, particularly on Saturday, whether the team can make the gains sufficiently consistent to challenge at the front.
The Bahrain Grand Prix is one of the remaining rounds on the revised 2026 Formula 1 calendar, giving Red Bull another chance both to pursue an immediate result and to gather information for the season ahead.
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