Christian Horner has no doubts Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen will give current champion Lewis Hamilton and chief rival Sebastian Vettel a "hard time" next season, as long as the team can enjoy better relaibility from its Renault engine.
In the four most recent races, Max Verstappen has outscored Lewis Hamilton by ten points and taken two victories in Malaysia and Mexico, whilst Daniel Ricciardo took victory in Azerbaijan and has finished on the podium nine times so far.
The team suffered at the start of the year with a poor development path, whilst engine reliability has also hit both drivers hard, but with the former resolved and Renault working hard on the latter issue, Horner believes his drivers will be in the mix next season.
"If we can take the lessons learned out of the RB13 into the RB14 and with better reliability, then I don't see any reason why both of our drivers shouldn't be able to give Lewis and Sebastian a hard time," he told Sky Sports.
The Red Bull team boss believes it's in the sports best interest for Verstappen and Ricciardo to be given a competitive car as they're two of a very select group that can challenge Hamilton.
"Lewis has just achieved four [titles], he's in his early 30s and one would assume that he's going to achieve more.
"Max is only 20. I think if we can give him a competitive car, he absolutely is a champion in waiting. You can see in the great drivers that they stand out at big moments. Max is doing exactly that.
"I feel very confident in our drivers having the ability," he added. "If we can give them the tools to go shoulder to shoulder with [Hamilton] and hopefully have a great fight, [it] will be great for the sport."
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