Wolff braced for 'full-on fight' amid Verstappen resurgence

Toto Wolff believes in-form Red Bull will be a central part of the "full-on fight" he is expecting at the front of the Formula 1 field into 2027.

Wolff's Mercedes team are closing in on a world championship double heading into the closing races of this season, with Kimi Antonelli able to clinch the drivers' title as early as this weekend's United States Grand Prix if results go his way.

The strength of Mercedes' challenge in both championship races was built on a flying start to the season - which has been the first of the sport's new regulation era - with eight wins from the campaign's first 10 rounds.

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However, their win rate has slowed since then with three victories in the last seven, with Ferrari, McLaren and latterly Red Bull all showing ability to challenge the Silver Arrows on race weekends.

Red Bull, in particular, had started the season lagging behind the leading pace but Max Verstappen has now won the last two races, a turnaround in form which Mercedes chief Wolff has been impressed by.

"I really think that you need to take your hat off to what Red Bull has done this season," said Wolff after Verstappen's dominant victory in Singapore.

"How they have developed the car and how it's all come together as a package and then you put Max Verstappen in the car and he feels a thing that wants it to drive, then these are the results.

"By far the quickest guy [in Singapore], the quickest guy in Kuala Lumpur and let's see when our upgrade hopefully starts to work and land in a place where it should be, whether we can be competitive against him, but one thing is for sure, next year, it's a full-on fight between the teams and Red Bull is part of that."

Wolff also believes Red Bull's power unit, the first in their history, has been performing strongly.

"I haven't seen the data yet from Singapore, but you can't see that it's lagging," added Wolff.

"They have done it well. The ICE [Internal Combustion Unit] seems to be very competitive. Obviously, you can see that with the ADUO [ranking, which Red Bull have found to be leading] but also in terms of energy recovery and energy deployment, they're pretty good."

Will Red Bull sustain winning form to end of 2026?

Red Bull now head to Austin's Circuit of the Americas chasing a third win in succession this weekend as their late-season bid to overhaul McLaren for third in the Constructors' Championship continues.

Their RB22 car's performance and, crucially, stability was improved by a significant aerodynamic upgrade at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last month.

That update did, however, represent the team's final one of note this season with their development focus now on their 2027 car.

With six rounds left, Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies admits the recent "pecking order could very rapidly change if some or many of our competitors bring upgrades", although he says there is still much for them to learn and improve with their existing package.

Mekies added: "There will be no other substantial upgrade to the car. Don't get me wrong, it does not mean that we will not continue to push very hard to improve, continue to push very hard to use every remaining race to learn for this year and to learn for next year.

"That's what we have to say to each other. The first win is the target, but the other target is to take all the learning. So, the development programme will not change. We have put our focus to 2027.

"We think there is still a huge amount of learning in 2026 that we could use in 2027. I'd like to take the time to say a huge congrats to Pierre [Wache]'s team, to Ben [Hodgkinson]'s team, for the work at Milton Keynes they have done in order to be in that position to fight for the win on different tracks.

"As I said, even on a weekend where you take two poles and two wins like this [Singapore] weekend, we are still very honest with each other about the fact that there were still a number of things we would like to see better done, even on a weekend like here. That's the spirit of this team and with that spirit we will go and reset and tackle the next race."

Sky Sports F1's United States schedule

Thursday October 22
6.25pm: F1 Academy Practice
8pm: Drivers' Press Conference
10.30pm: F1 Academy Qualifying
11.10pm: Paddock Uncut

Friday October 23
6pm: United States Grand Prix Practice One (session starts at 6.30pm)*
8pm: The F1 Show
9.45pm: United States Grand Prix Practice Two (session starts at 10pm)*
11.50pm: F1 Academy Race 1*

Saturday October 24
6.15pm: United States Grand Prix Practice Three (session starts at 6.30pm)
8.30pm: United States Grand Prix Qualifying build-up*
10pm: UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING*
12am: F1 Academy Race 2*
12.45am: Ted's Qualifying Notebook*

Sunday October 25
5pm: F1 Academy Race 3
6.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: United States GP build-up*
8pm: THE UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX*
10pm: Chequered Flag: United States GP reaction
11pm: Ted's Notebook

*also on Sky Sports Main Event

Formula 1 heads to The Americas for another triple-header with the United States Grand Prix in Austin up first this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime