After what was a very successful couple of weekends from Max Verstappen, McLaren's Oscar Piastri believes that Red Bull is now the most consistently fast team on the Formula 1 grid after its recent upgrades rocketed it to the top of the timesheets.
The Milton Keynes outfit now arrives in Austin for the United States Grand Prix just seven points behind the papaya-coloured cars in the battle for the constructors' championship. After a sudden gold rush for Verstappen thanks to back-to-back wins across the races in Malaysia and Singapore, the pressure is now on the Woking team.
Speaking in the press conference ahead of the race at the Circuit of the Americas, Piastri believes the Red Bull cars are now the ones to beat across the board.
“I think Red Bull definitely took a pretty big step forwards over the last triple-header,” he said. “Whatever upgrades they put on the car in Baku were very strong. They had a double podium there and won the next two races with Max."
The Australian expected the Ferrari team to be the benchmark at a lot of circuits, and was surprised to see Red Bull be in such a strong position at this point.
“I think clearly the Red Bull was very strong, both stronger than us, for sure. So over the last few weeks, Red Bull’s definitely become, I would say, the most consistently quick car. But I think each weekend, the challenges are kind of rotating.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Mark Thompson / Getty Images
McLaren won the constructors' championship last year, but this year has been confronted with a car that reigning champion Lando Norris defines as "mentally exhausting".
The Australian suggested that his team's hopes of a stronger end to the season have been decimated by the rapid improvements made by the other top teams.
“In the middle of the season we felt like we’d gained some momentum, and potentially we were back to being able to fight for wins and regular podiums,” he said. “But that’s often the way in Formula 1. You think you’re there again, and you’ve got a few teams around you to pull you down a few pegs.”
Not everyone at Red Bull agrees with this. Isack Hadjar, also available in the press conference, argued: “I don’t think we have the fastest car,” and suggested Ferrari had been quicker in Singapore.
Verstappen will be chasing another win in Austin this weekend, but McLaren will be fighting hard to maintain their place in the standings.