Verstappen eyes first Red Bull power unit win after admitting F1 bucket list is complete

Max Verstappen has declared his Formula 1 bucket list complete — four world championships, 71 race wins, 128 podiums — and is now chasing a more specific milestone: a grand prix victory powered by Red Bull’s own engine.

Speaking ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix, the 28-year-old told Vogue that the headline ambitions of his career have already been met. “The main ones have all been completed,” he said. “What I want now are smaller achievements — like achieving a win on our own power units, stuff like that.”

Verstappen claimed four consecutive drivers’ titles between 2021 and 2024 before narrowly losing the 2025 championship to McLaren’s Lando Norris. His career statistics also include 48 pole positions and 37 fastest laps, a record that would satisfy most drivers’ entire ambitions. Yet rather than coast on those numbers, Verstappen described a growing fascination with the technical side of the sport. “I’m just passionate about racing, and trying to build more knowledge — even down to computing power, and AI, which is in a way quite scary, but cool. You need to be a little bit of a geek for these kinds of things, but I like it.”

The power unit milestone he is targeting carries real significance for Red Bull as an organisation. The Milton Keynes team ended its long-standing partnership with Honda after 2025 and entered the 2026 season running Red Bull Powertrains engines developed in collaboration with Ford. The new regulations, which came into force this year, mandate an almost 50:50 split between internal combustion and electric power — a ratio that is expected to be revised in 2027.

The transition has not been seamless on track. After five rounds of the 2026 season, Red Bull sits fourth in the constructors’ standings with 57 points. Verstappen is seventh in the drivers’ championship on 43 points, while new team-mate Isack Hadjar is 12th with 14 points. A win for Verstappen under Red Bull’s own power would therefore represent both a personal landmark and a statement of intent from the team’s ambitious in-house engineering programme.