Christian Horner just explained why Lando Norris must fear Oscar Piastri at McLaren in 2026

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Christian Horner has assessed Oscar Piastri’s 2026 title chances after his 2025 F1 season rather ‘fell apart’.

Piastri led the standings by 34 points after winning the Dutch GP, round 15 of 24. Horner already felt he was the ‘odds-on favourite’ going into the summer break.

But Piastri would not win any of the last eight races. In fact, he missed out on the podium altogether in five of those.

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That opened the door for teammate Lando Norris to fight back and take the title. Norris peaked at the perfect time, and Max Verstappen’s charge ultimately demoted Piastri to third.

Christian Horner says Oscar Piastri’s critics ‘forget’ his inexperience

Horner fought with Piastri’s McLaren team until July, when he was relieved of his duties as Red Bull boss. But in a rare interview with Australian TV channel 9 News, he was asked about the driver’s prospects heading into the new season.

He says the ‘hurt’ of missing out by 13 points will make Piastri a stronger opponent for Norris. If inexperience held him back last year, then he should now take another step in his fourth F1 season.

Of all the drivers in the top 11 of the championship, only Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli had made fewer starts than Piastri. The rest were at least 50 clear.

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“Oscar will have learned a huge amount from last year,” said Horner. “I thought he was odds-on favourite going into the summer break and unfortunately, it sort of fell apart for him at the end of the season there.

“He’ll have learned from that, and that will have hurt him and ultimately motivated him. You forget that the guy has only done a couple of seasons in Formula 1.

“He’s so relatively inexperienced that he’s just going to get better and better, and he’s going to be fully motivated for the season ahead.”

Christian Horner missed a chance to sign Oscar Piastri

Horner expressed his interest in signing Piastri during the last season of Drive to Survive. His admiration for the 24-year-old is clear.

In fact, Horner regretted not signing Piastri when he was a youngster, long before the infamous tug-of-war between McLaren and Alpine.

Martin Brundle agrees that Piastri will ‘come back with a vengeance’ in 2026, but warns that he must improve on low-grip circuits to become a champion. Those venues were arguably Piastri’s undoing last year.

McLaren have won the last two constructors’ championships but their position at the top of the pecking order is expected to come under serious threat from engine suppliers Mercedes.