Steiner delivers blunt verdict on Verstappen's 2026 season: 'He will be on the podium, but I think that's the limit'

The former Haas team principal made the prediction on The Red Flags Podcast following the Spanish Grand Prix. Asked during the show's 'Gas or Brake' feature whether Verstappen would finish the year without a victory, Steiner was unequivocal.

Steiner placed the blame firmly on the RB22 rather than its driver, but argued that even Verstappen's considerable talent cannot overcome the scale of the gap. "He's not good enough. He will be Super Max, he will be on the podium, but I think that's the limit," he added.

The four-time world champion currently sits sixth in the standings with 145 points, 147 behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli. His best results of the campaign have been second-place finishes at the Austrian, Hungarian and Spanish Grands Prix.

Verstappen's own words after the Spanish Grand Prix painted a similarly sobering picture. "It's just looking at the lap times, we are quite a bit down still," he told Sky Sports.

At Monza, he was even more pointed, describing the RB22 as "a car made of paper." Team principal Laurent Mekies has since acknowledged that a persistent car performance degradation issue cannot be fully resolved with this year's chassis, as GPblog reported.

Steiner's prediction gains particular weight this weekend as Verstappen returns to the Baku City Circuit, where he delivered a commanding Grand Slam 12 months ago, leading all 51 laps and winning by over 14 seconds, as GPblog reported at the time. That dominance now feels distant.

He heads into round 15 carrying a 14-race winless streak, and with no driver in the circuit's history having won consecutive Azerbaijan Grands Prix, both the track's own record and Red Bull's decision to shift most of their remaining budget toward the 2027 car are working against him.

If the circuit that produced one of Verstappen's most complete weekends in 2025 cannot yield a win this time around, Steiner's blunt forecast will be difficult to argue with.