Eddie Jordan says he's been "blow away" by the recent performances of McLaren rookie Oscar Piastri and believes the 22-year-old will become a solid candidate to replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull.
Piastri was plucked last year by McLaren from Alpine's junior programme following the French outfit's negligent and messy management of its contractual situation with the Aussie.
Piastri scored his first championship points in F1 at his home race in Melbourne but has just scored back-to-back top-five finishes at Silverstone and last weekend in Hungary, while also qualifying on the second row at both events.
"The thing that caught my interest yesterday was this guy Piastri," Jordan told talkSPORT the day after the Hungarian Grand Prix.
"He’d never been to this track before, maybe once in the junior formulas, and for him to come out and qualify on the second row and race like he did, and race against Max…
"Be careful where he’s going to go because I think there is big star quality in there, I’m actually blown away with this young kid, so he’d be one of the drivers I’d be looking at to challenge Max in the future."
Piastri is managed by former Red Bull driver Mark Webber. And the nine-time Grand Prix winner was instrumental last year in prying Piastri away from Alpine and convincing McLaren to drop Daniel Ricciardo in favour of his protégé who is believed to be contracted to team papaya until the end of 2024.
However, Jordan believes that Webber's astute management and good connections with Red Bull's top brass will eventually make Piastri a potential successor to Sergio Perez when the Mexican's contract with Red Bull expires at the end of 2024.
"He's managed by my old partner Mark Webber and we saw how he got him into McLaren," commented Jordan.
"Do not be surprised if there’s a seat available at Red Bull, of course where Mark used to be, don’t be surprised if he [Piastri] is named in front of the public eye in the future."
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner recently stated that Ricciardo's move to AlphaTauri was a way for the Aussie to "pitch" for a return to Milton Keynes team in the future.
But Jordan doubts very much that such a move will come to pass for Ricciardo.
"I don’t see it, they had that chance before and Red Bull don’t usually go back in time, they have a very forward vision," asserted the former team owner.
"If there’s a change at Red Bull, Mark Webber has brought this kid [Piastri] on, brought him over from Australia, and what a revelation he’s turned out to be."
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