With the supreme RB19 underneath him, Max Verstappen enjoyed his peak in 2023. He looked unstoppable and is also expected to remain the same in 2024. However, Eddie Jordan, a former F1 team boss believes he will see young gun Oscar Piastri as his competitor in the coming years.
Speaking about this, Jordan said while speaking in the Formula For Success podcast, “He is long-term somebody that Max [Verstappen] will look over his shoulder at and to see how is he progressing… He’s one of those characters that I think he could unleash himself into the highest echelons of Formula 1 in terms of records and careers and race wins long-term.”
Piastri has been in a scintillating form this season. Even though this was his rookie year, he did not let that get into his mind and performed valiantly alongside his experienced teammate Lando Norris. So much so, that he is now regarded as a threat to Norris in the team.
Despite this being his first year, Piastri took two podiums, a Sprint win in Qatar, and 97 points. Even Verstappen showered praise on the 2021 F2 champ as he cited Piastri as one of the closest competitors he faced this year.
Precisely so, in the Belgian and Qatar sprints, Piastri was matching the Dutchman toe to toe and showed his prowess. One would wonder what he can do in a car similar on pace with Red Bull! As it stands, things are going to get better for the Australian driver from now on as Zak Brown’s team expects to improve massively in 2024.
Furthermore, McLaren would want to have Piastri on the team for as long as possible and for this, they need to give him a race-winning car to keep him happy. Something they have already promised to Norris.
McLaren needs to upgrade to keep Oscar Piastri happy
Given how massively overpowered Red Bull is, McLaren needs to have tremendous upgrades to have a chance of winning races in 2024. Therefore, the engineers back at Woking need to sort their work out to keep Oscar Piastri and his teammate happy.
As McLaren already promised Norris a race-winning car in the coming season, Piastri can also use this opportunity for his benefit. Nevertheless, Brown’s team are already on it as seen in the 2023 season improvements.
Another year with this trio. #McLaren pic.twitter.com/wW3c1duDKh
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) January 3, 2024
They began their season in the worst possible way when they remained without a point in the first two races. However, things changed after the 2023 Austrian GP when the Papayas began to show progress, and soon after Norris and Piastri started to be on points and took numerous podiums.
As things stand, McLaren would only get better from this and look to have better than P4 in the Constructors’ championship. Therefore, if the Woking outfit keeps on improving this way, Oscar Piastri might not only be a thorn in Lando Norris’ territory in McLaren but also for Max Verstappen in the F1 world championship.
