Verstappen ruled out of 2026 title fight: 'He’s not a contender'

The four-time world champion showed signs of progress in Miami after a difficult start to the season for Red Bull, with the RB22 featuring major revisions across several areas, including the debut of a Ferrari-style “macarena” rear wing concept developed with a different philosophy. The Dutchman was unable to fully capitalise on the car’s potential after spinning at Turn 1, an incident that compromised his chances of fighting for the podium, although the recovery drive he produced on an alternative strategy offered encouraging signs heading into the remainder of the championship.

However, Steiner, speaking on The Red Flags podcast, does not believe the Dutchman has any real chance of fighting for a fifth world title this season: “He’s not a title contender. No, no way. I don’t even want to explain that. It’s just not going to happen this year.”

At the moment, Verstappen sits on 26 points after four races, while championship leader Kimi Antonelli has already reached the 100-point mark. However, Red Bull has previously shown its ability to completely turn situations around in a relatively short amount of time, as demonstrated by the Dutchman’s comeback last season, when he managed to recover a deficit of more than 100 points to McLaren after the summer break and came close to securing the title in Abu Dhabi.

The Dutchman will be in action this weekend for the highly anticipated Nürburgring 24 Hours, with the event getting underway on Thursday with the opening qualifying sessions scheduled from 13:15 to 15:15 local time and from 20:00 to 23:30.

Friday will then feature Top Qualifying 1 from 08:50 to 09:25, Top Qualifying 2 from 09:45 to 10:20, Qualifying 3 from 10:35 to 11:50 and Top Qualifying 3 from 13:35 to 14:35. On Saturday, the warm-up session will take place between 10:00 and 11:00 before the starting grid procedures begin at 12:45, with the formation lap set for 14:40 and the race officially starting at 15:00 local time. The iconic endurance race will then conclude at 15:00 on Sunday.