Is the Max Verstappen-Red Bull combination now the favorite for the 2027 F1 Championship?
Max Verstappen dominated the F1 Singapore GP and picked up his first win at the circuit. This win came after the driver dominated the F1 Bahrain GP in Malaysia. The driver’s form and the resurgence that Red Bull has had have led to suggestions that the team is now in a position where the 2027 F1 title would not be a fever dream.
Max Verstappen dominated the sport from 2021 to 2024, during which he picked up four championships. He lost the 2025 F1 championship by just 2 points. It’s safe to say that if he has the right car under him, a title will not come as a surprise.
So, should Max Verstappen and Red Bull be considered the favorites to win the 2027 F1 championship? Let’s take a look.
Where Red Bull is right now
If we take a look at the progression chart for Red Bull, from where the team was at the start of the season to where it is right now, it’s nothing short of transformative. After the Austrian GP, Verstappen was 7th in the championship standings, and even the prospect of being a race winner looked elusive.
After the Singapore GP, he’s within touching distance of finishing P2 in the championship. A lot of this has happened because the focus has been on getting the chassis to a point where the weaknesses are taken care of. As a result, the number of complaints from Max Verstappen during a race weekend, which we used to hear often, has reduced significantly.
At the same time, it might not come as a surprise to anyone if the Red Bull power unit is now the best on the grid. The RBPT always had the best ICE, but the area where the power unit struggled against Mercedes was its ability to generate enough electric power.
With software updates and reliability solutions applied to the car, Red Bull has made a significant step forward on the PU side, and the deficit does not exist anymore. As a result, the car was not only impressive on the highly abrasive surface of Malaysia but also in the slow-speed, twisty sections of Singapore.
With just 6 races left, Red Bull is not looking to bring any more upgrades to the car, but one has to imagine that the foundation is strong enough for the car to be competitive, at the very least.
Why the Red Bull-Max Verstappen pair could be title contenders
The foundation of a strong car under this set of regulations is a strong power unit. Red Bull already has one. The second part is the ability to understand how to unlock performance with these regulations, and we are looking at the team being able to accomplish it.
Couple that with the fact that if you have a Max Verstappen on the team, you don’t necessarily need the fastest car; you just need a car that performs close to that level, and Verstappen would make the difference. At the very least, Red Bull should have a strong foundation for the 2027 package, and that will only give them even more confidence in what they can achieve.
To add to this, even though Red Bull has continued to bring its set of upgrades late into the 2026 F1 season, the team was one of the earliest to switch focus to the 2027 package. Laurent Mekies had made it clear very early in the year that the team had switched focus to next year, and it was the earliest that any team had made that switch.
The switch is also only going to help the team further, as it gives them greater bandwidth to put together a better package. Hence, if we are looking at Red Bull in 2027, it is a team with the best driver, potentially the best PU, a strong design team, and, most importantly, a great foundation for this set of regulations. At the very least, Red Bull will not be on the back foot at the start of the 2027 season.
What are the areas where things could go wrong?
This brings us to the more critical side of Red Bull, which is also important to address. The first thing we have to note is that at least part of the team’s recent resurgence is down to the upgrade package brought in at Baku and the struggles that the rivals have had.
McLaren brought an upgrade package in Baku, and it has seemingly hurt the team. Mercedes brought one in Malaysia, and it is still trying to wrap its head around it. If we look at the Azerbaijan GP, the pre-upgrade car was dominant in the hands of George Russell, so maybe it’s not all smooth sailing for Red Bull either.
Most importantly, though, we have to recognize the fact that this is a new Red Bull. This is not the same team that was led by Christian Horner to multiple titles. It’s a Laurent Mekies-led outfit, and we’re yet to completely see how well he can marshal the troops.
To add to this, a fact that is often forgotten is that Red Bull has lost significant manpower, with many senior personnel leaving the outfit since 2024. At the same time, there hasn’t been the same level of recruitment for the team, and there haven’t been that many new names that have joined either. There is still a gulf, and that could potentially hurt the team as well.
Conclusion
Could Max Verstappen and Red Bull be title contenders for 2027? Yes, they could potentially be. There are certainly factors at play that would aid such a thing. But can we be 100% confident? Probably not, because there are still far too many doubts that have to be overcome.
What we can certainly claim here is that Red Bull is going to be one of the teams at the front of the grid and should be in the group of teams that contend for the title.
