By: The latest results achieved by Red Bull and Max Verstappen are every bit as impressive as those recorded by newly crowned world champion Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Three wins in the last four races and nine podiums overall across the 10 Grands Prix contested between the Belgian Grand Prix and the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Verstappen "like" Antonelli over the last 10 races
Four-time world champion Max Verstappen has finished on the podium in every race since Francorchamps, aside from his retirement at his home circuit in Zandvoort. Only new world champion Antonelli has a better record. Four wins for Kimi compared with three for Verstappen. The Italian has scored 201 points over the last 10 races, against the Dutchman’s 185.
The Milton Keynes outfit has taken a convincing step forward. Its strength and resurgence are now undeniable. Red Bull is paying dearly for its difficult start to the season, but at this pace it is certainly positioning itself as the second force and the leading challenger to Mercedes and Andrea Kimi Antonelli for the 2027 season.
Verstappen improves, Hadjar loses his way
Looking at the standings and seeing Max Verstappen in second place is therefore no surprise, given these results. Unfortunately, however, set against Max’s progress, we must acknowledge that the performance gap between the Dutchman and his team-mate Isack Hadjar is once again widening dramatically.
In the first part of the year, the Frenchman had shown pace comparable to that of the four-time world champion. Verstappen claimed his first podium in Canada with third place, and Hadjar responded immediately by finishing third in Monaco. At the other rounds, between Spain and Hungary, the Frenchman was then highly consistent, never finishing lower than P6.
Since returning from illness, Hadjar produced a standout result with third place in Azerbaijan, but has since lost his way. Finishing fifth or sixth was enough when Verstappen was ending races in P3 or P4, but now that the car’s performance has improved, Hadjar’s target should have risen too. Instead, Isack is still there, at best, as happened at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, fighting for P6. In Singapore and at the most recent Mexican Grand Prix, the results were far worse.
In Mexico, things do not go as they should. He starts seventh, makes contact with Russell at the start and is then unable to recover. He finishes ninth by taking advantage of others’ mistakes and penalties. Without the sanctions handed out by the FIA to Piastri and the two Alpines, Isack would actually have finished P12.
Verstappen wins while the second driver loses his way. He cannot keep pace. Red Bull is heading towards a familiar scenario, one that even team principal Laurent Mekies, seemingly, cannot remedy.
Cover and in-article photos by Peter Kiss / WHYOUT Images
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