Vasseur refuses to call Red Bull F1’s team to beat

Fred Vasseur is “not sure” that Red Bull is currently Formula 1’s team to beat. The Ferrari boss will not draw that conclusion despite Max Verstappen’s run of results: the four-time world champion claimed his first victory of 2026 in Malaysia, then won both the Singapore sprint and Grand Prix a week later. He had started his last two Grands Prix from pole. Red Bull had previously brought a major upgrade to Baku; Verstappen has now reached five consecutive podiums, and the team is just seven points behind third-placed McLaren with six rounds remaining.

Asked whether Red Bull was the team to beat, Vasseur replied: “Not sure.” He acknowledged that the team was “doing very well” but argued that the pecking order had shifted during the season. “Mercedes was flying, then we won two races, then McLaren won two, then Red Bull won two or three,” he said. He also stressed how closely matched several teams remain: “I think yesterday there were four teams within less than two races.”

Vasseur sees that rotation as typical of the campaign: Mercedes dominated the opening six rounds before Ferrari and McLaren closed the gap. During the mid-season European leg, the two teams each won twice before Red Bull returned to the top step. Different upgrade strategies have helped shift the order.

Vasseur’s view differs from that of Mercedes driver George Russell, who said Red Bull was the team to beat given Verstappen’s wins at two very different circuits. In Singapore, however, Vasseur credited the Dutchman’s victory in large part to the opening lap. Verstappen held off Charles Leclerc approaching the first corner, then controlled the race on the Marina Bay street circuit, where overtaking was particularly difficult. Ferrari’s Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finished second and sixth on Sunday.

Vasseur emphasised how hard it was to follow a car closely: “As soon as you were two or three seconds behind, you were struggling more.” He added that overtaking cost time, but the difficulty was already there before a pass was attempted. “That meant the position at Turn 1 was critical,” he concluded. In Vasseur’s view, the pecking order can still change if a team brings upgrades; the priority is to focus on its own work.