‘There are no guarantees’ – Verstappen evaluates chances of long-awaited Singapore win

Max Verstappen has insisted that he’s “going to try” to secure his first win at the Singapore Grand Prix, but remains aware that even after his victory in Malaysia, “there are no guarantees” due to the tight competition at the front of the field.

Following a frustrating start to the 2026 season, Verstappen finally returned to the top step last time out at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, where he beat Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton.

Although the achievement suggested that Red Bull might be able to fight for wins regularly, the Dutchman explained that it would be “complicated” to do so at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, especially as his best result there was a trio of P2 finishes in 2025, 2024 and 2018.

Quizzed on whether he’s now in a place to chase down that long-awaited win in Singapore, he replied: “We're going to try, that's for sure. It's always complicated on a street circuit, a lot of things have to come together.

“Some just happen a bit sooner than others and unfortunately for a lot of different reasons, we have not won here yet, even in our dominant years.

“But you always need to look at the strengths of the car and Singapore was a track where our car didn't really come alive before. I hope it's going to be a little bit better this year but there are no guarantees.

“There are a lot of other teams that are also very strong on street circuits and also every street circuit is very different. This is not like Baku, for example, and it's also not like Monaco. We'll see.”

With seven rounds of the season remaining, Verstappen went on to explain that he wants to stay realistic about Red Bull’s chances and set just one goal – to seal another win before they shift their focus to 2027.

“I just want to try and see if we can carry this momentum and try to be in a position again to win potentially,” he said. “I don't know if that's here or in another race.

“We have won one race finally and then we also need to stay with two feet on the ground and keep working because I'm sure that it's not always going to be like this now until the end of the season. Step by step we try to be better and next year is a completely different story.”

Verstappen’s triumph in the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia would’ve been made even sweeter by a double podium for the team, and while Isack Hadjar came close, a battery issue dropped him to P5 late on.

Reflecting on the weekend, Hadjar said: “To be honest, it's still an ongoing analysis, but at the same time, I don't think whatever happened in Malaysia is going to impact us heading into Singapore.

“But still, I'm not the type of guy who just moves on anyway, ‘ah, the race is finished’. I want everything to be understood and, even if now I'm focused on Singapore, I am happy to then come back into a bit more details.”

It was nevertheless a strong showing by the Frenchman, who was able to celebrate a historic first win for Red Bull Ford Powertrains just two races into his return from injury.

“[When] we started in Melbourne, I was like nine-tenths behind Mercedes in third. And then we kind of went downhill, so at some point we were even further away from the leaders, and from then we kind of managed to reach decent results, had some form, average form.

“I would say it was kind of a plateau for a bit of the European period, and then that final upgrade kind of put us in contention, and also you have Max in the car so it kind of helps. It's great to have a Red Bull power unit win a race. They've been doing that for only four years and they won an F1 race already, so it's impressive.”