Max Verstappen heavily backed as 10-year F1 win streak hangs in balance

Despite 11 winless races in 2026, Max Verstappen retains overwhelming public confidence that he will extend his victory streak before the season concludes. A RacingNews365 poll shows 83.3 percent of readers firmly backing the four-time champion to reach the top step, even as the RB22 continues to lag behind the leading Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari packages.

Why it matters:

Verstappen has won at least one grand prix in every season since his breakthrough victory at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, a run spanning 10 consecutive years and 71 total victories. From a solitary win during his first full Red Bull campaign to a record-shattering 19 in 2023, this remarkable consistency has defined his career and now faces its most credible threat since he joined the senior team.

The details:

• The RacingNews365 poll revealed a commanding 83.3% of voters believe Verstappen will win in 2026, with just 16.7% predicting a completely winless season for the first time in his career.
• After 11 rounds, Verstappen holds sixth in the championship on 109 points, piloting an RB22 widely considered his weakest Red Bull machinery since his debut season with the team in 2015.
• A difficult opening stretch saw him climb to sixth in Australia from 20th on the grid, suffer a retirement in China, and struggle for outright pace in Japan.
• Recent upgrades have at least hauled the car into podium contention, with second-place finishes in Austria and Hungary offering genuine hope, though a half-second qualifying deficit to the frontrunners persists.

What's next:

With 11 races remaining from Zandvoort onward, the calendar offers Verstappen ample opportunity to salvage his decade-long streak. Red Bull's development trajectory will need to continue closing the gap to the championship leaders, but with upgrades slowly unlocking performance, believers will point to history as proof that counting out the Dutchman remains a dangerous gamble.