Red Bull boss Christian Horner admitted Max Verstappen has a serious rival in Oscar Piastri, calling the young Australian a “very rounded” competitor – but remains optimistic after a strong showing in Saudi Arabia.
Verstappen, who started on pole, picked up a five-second penalty for cutting Turn 1 to stay ahead of Piastri – a move that ultimately handed the lead to the McLaren driver during the pit stops.
Piastri never looked back, cruising to his maiden win of the season and taking the top spot in the drivers’ championship for the first time in his career, leapfrogging teammate Lando Norris.
Despite a storm of speculation over Verstappen’s Red Bull future in the lead-up to Jeddah – following a rocky outing in Bahrain – the Dutchman delivered a blistering pole lap and flashed impressive pace on race day.
Horner acknowledges that Piastri, now 10 points clear of Norris and 12 ahead of Verstappen, is proving to be formidable opposition for the four-time world champion.
“I think he is very strong, very strong mentally, pace-wise. He looks very rounded,” Horner said of Piastri.
“Oscar has won three races to Lando’s one. He looks like the driver in form at this moment in time.
“He is now the leader of the championship. Had Max won, he would have been leading the championship, so things move around pretty quickly.
“There’s an awful lot of positives that we can take out of the weekend. The frustrating thing is I thought we had them beat today, and unfortunately, a really marginal call at the first chicane has been the difference.
“That was probably our most competitive race of the year to date in terms of raw pace.”
Piastri secured back-to-back wins and now has three from the opening five races, becoming the first Australian to lead the championship since Mark Webber in 2010.
The unflappable 24-year-old delivered another faultless weekend, while Norris – who finished fourth – paid the price for starting from 10th after crashing out of final qualifying.
Piastri completed a stunning overtake on Lewis Hamilton on his out lap after pitting, going off-line to surge around the outside of the Ferrari.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said he had no concerns in that moment.
“Personally, I did not have any kind of exciting moment there. He was very confident, he was very in control of the situation, and he knew Turn 1 was his chance,” Stella said.
“Today, for me, was like Baku (last season). In Baku, it was very tense – if you remember – with (Charles) Leclerc, but somehow I was very calm because it’s one of those in which you know that Oscar is in control, and he knows very well what he is doing.”