F1 2026: Max Verstappen and Red Bull comeback on the cards claims boss

Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen and Red Bull comeback on the cards claims F1 boss

Max Verstappen and Red Bull have been tipped to comeback in F1

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Sunday 26 April 2026 08:55

All is not lost for Red Bull and Max Verstappen after one F1 boss tipped them for a comeback.

Red Bull have had a rocky start to the new F1 ruleset and after three races, find themselves sixth place in the constructors’ championship, with four-time world champion Verstappen sitting in ninth in the drivers’ standings.

This follows a turbulent period during which Red Bull bid farewell to influential figures like Adrian Newey, Jonathan Wheatley, and Will Courtenay, while also preparing for the eventual exit of Verstappen’s long-time race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase.

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The British-Italian engineer will join McLaren as their chief racing officer 'no later than' 2028, with rumours swirling that Verstappen could follow him out of the door.

The talent Red Bull need to unlock

Despite the recent departures, Zak Brown remains optimistic about Red Bull’s future, comparing their current situation to his own early days at McLaren in 2018.

Speaking to the media, Brown explained: "One would be very foolish to write Red Bull off.

"I think they have to kind of do a little bit of a reset, right? They lost a lot of people – Christian [Horner], Wheatley, GP, Newey, Dan Fallows, I think Dan’s now maybe back."

"I rate Laurent [Mekies, team principal], I think he does a very good job, he’s technical, he’s young, and I think he’s got to rebuild the people that he lost and rebuild the team, and I have no doubt he will.

The promotion of Ben Waterhouse and the hiring of Andrea Landi to Red Bull were done to strengthen the technical leadership in the team, with Brown explaining that this talent needs to be unlocked like it was at McLaren.

He added: "And much like McLaren, had an immense amount of talent that just needed to be unlocked, I think that’s probably the same as Red Bull.

"They’ve been very dominant up to not very long ago, so there’s a lot of talent in there, and I think he’ll just need to get a redirect."

Looking ahead, Brown expects the competitive gap in Formula 1 to narrow even further and claims that several teams are currently making significant development strides, which will likely widen the field.

He concluded: "Even a team like Audi F1 Team is making impressive progress."

F1 Red Bull Max Verstappen Zak Brown