The chaos was real: a start delayed by power unit software glitches, a 100-minute tropical rainstorm, two safety cars and a chasing Kimi Antonelli. The pace was not improvised. Max Verstappen converted pole into a 2.307-second win over the Mercedes driver on 4 October, with Lewis Hamilton recovering from 18th to third after Ferrari’s first-lap slick tyre call unravelled.
It was Verstappen’s first victory of 2026 and the first for Red Bull Ford Powertrains since the new engine partnership began the season. The race itself was the Bahrain Grand Prix relocated to Malaysia’s Sepang circuit, F1’s first visit to the venue since 2017.
The aerodynamic reset that started in Spain
The RB22 that Verstappen was complaining about earlier in the year suffered from unpredictable behaviour through the middle of corners, with rear-end snaps that scrubbed his confidence over a lap. Red Bull’s technical response arrived piece by piece: revisions to the upper sidepod profiles, a reworked undercut, and a different aerodynamic map rolled in from the Spanish Grand Prix onwards. By Sepang the car was described by its engineers as noticeably more precise and responsive.
Barcelona also brought a new front wing, with the camber of the flaps sharpened and the shape at the endplate junction reworked to add local load without destabilising airflow. Where Suzuka exposed the limits of the earlier package, Spain was the point from which the car’s working window shifted.
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Mekies: “We will take some risks”
Team principal Laurent Mekies, in the role since July 2025 after Christian Horner’s exit, framed the win as item one on a list that had refused to shrink.
“Getting our first win was on top of the list, we said it quite a few times. It felt very, very far away, but that was really on top of the list,” Mekies told reporters.
“We will continue to experiment, we will continue to take some risks to maximise that learning.”
Verstappen’s own verdict was that the engine side of the equation had quietly delivered.
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“It’s incredible. To win our first race in our first year with our own power unit is pretty impressive,” he said after the race.
The title maths is still Antonelli’s
The run-in has eight points-paying weekends left, including a sprint in Singapore, and 175 points on the table. The standings tell the real story of how late the Red Bull revival has arrived:
- Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes): 320
- George Russell (Mercedes): 236
- Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari): 214
- Charles Leclerc (Ferrari): 191
- Lando Norris (McLaren): 188
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing): 188
Antonelli, with eight wins and 13 podiums, extended his lead over Russell to 84 points at Sepang. Verstappen sits 132 points behind in sixth, mathematically alive but needing both Mercedes to collapse in parallel.
Mekies expects Singapore to suit the RB22
The next stop is the Marina Bay Street Circuit, running 9 to 11 October, with the season’s final sprint on Saturday. Mekies has already said he expects the car to suit Singapore better than Bahrain’s layout, and that it is Mercedes, not McLaren or Ferrari, who have been the most consistent benchmark across the year.
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The Singapore Grand Prix is scheduled over 62 laps on Sunday 11 October.
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