Fred Vasseur is not sure Red Bull are F1's best team, but the results are
Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur won't call Red Bull F1's best team, despite Max Verstappen winning the last two grands prix from pole.
Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur has refused to label Red Bull the current best team in Formula 1. He is "not sure" they are, even though Max Verstappen has won the last two grands prix from pole. We're sure, and the results make the case.
Two grands prix, two wins from pole
Verstappen's season had been missing a win until Malaysia. The four-time world champion took his first victory of 2026 there, and it was a dominant one rather than a win handed to him by someone else's bad afternoon.
A week later he did it again, and then some. In Singapore he won both the sprint and the grand prix. That's three wins across two weekends, and both grands prix came from pole. Qualifying on top and converting it into a win, twice in a row, is about as clear a signal of the fastest package as the sport gives you.
Why the Baku upgrade matters
The timing is what turns this from a good run into something more. The wins came after Red Bull brought a large upgrade to Baku. A car that suddenly starts taking poles and winning races straight after a big package of new parts looks like a car that has moved forward, not one that has been lucky.
Hot streaks happen in F1. A safety car falls the right way, a rival hits trouble, the weather plays a part. But a hot streak doesn't usually follow a major upgrade so neatly, and it doesn't usually include a dominant win, a sprint win and a grand prix win in the space of a week. The pattern points at the car.
Vasseur's hedge doesn't hold up
It's understandable that the man running Ferrari wouldn't want to crown a rival. There's little to gain from saying it out loud. But a refusal to call it isn't the same as the evidence being unclear, and here the evidence is about as clear as it gets: the last two grands prix won from pole, a sprint on top, and all of it straight after a large upgrade.
Vasseur's caution doesn't survive those results. On current form, Red Bull are the team to beat. If anyone wants to argue otherwise, they'll need a better case than "not sure".
