Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes Racing Point’s performance at the opening two races poses a threat to all teams this season.
Mercedes dominated the opening two rounds of the season in Austria and secured a one-two victory at the second of the two races at the Red Bull Ring.
Red Bull appeared to have the second fastest car but failed to capitalise on a race-winning opportunity in the first race and finished third and fourth in the second.
However, one of the standout performances was from the Racing Point team, which finished seventh in the standings last year but now looks like a genuine contender as the third fastest team.
The pace of the pink cars caught the attention of its rivals and led to Renault protesting the legality of Racing Point’s brake ducts.
Red Bull’s Alex Albon saw his fourth place finish come under threat from Sergio Perez in the closing stages of Sunday’s race and Horner noted that the Racing Point was running faster than Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas as it closed in on Albon.
“I think everybody would be worried by the Racing Point,” Horner said after Sunday’s race. “I mean Perez was quicker than the Mercedes at that point in the race.
“Bearing in mind that Bottas was on tyres that were within one lap of age to the Racing Point, Perez was three or four tenths quicker.
“So it was very impressive pace that they showed and I think Alex drove incredibly well to keep them behind.
“But also if you look at Alex’s pace on that tyre versus Bottas, again there was encouragement that we can take from that in a car that wasn’t carrying any damage.
Albon was running off the pace of teammate Max Verstappen during the race, which was why his position came under threat from Perez, and Horner said the team would look into his struggle for performance early in the race.
“Alex had a race of two halves, I mean in the first half he was struggling,” he said. “And then the second half, I thought he drove well and his pace was good.
“So, you know, we need to understand that with him and hopefully help him get more comfortable with the car on the heavy fuel — because his pace in the second half of the race was strong.
“He fought very well with Perez, who was the fastest car on the circuit — at that stage three to four tenths quicker than Bottas, who had the freshest tyres. So I thought Alex did drive a good race — particularly the second half.”