Lewis Hamilton has admitted that he didn't believe Red Bull could ever build a better engine than Mercedes or Ferrari. But after the team's partnership with Ford built what the FIA has identified as the benchmark internal combustion engine, Hamilton says the team has "proved everybody wrong".
Red Bull's power unit made its debut this year and Max Verstappen has already won both the Bahrain and Singapore Grands Prix under its power.
Asked whether he agreed with Isack Hadjar's view that Ferrari, not Red Bull, had the fastest car in Singapore, Hamilton was diplomatic with the young driver.
“Well, firstly, I think Isack is an amazing driver. We’re going to have different opinions there. Ultimately, they’ve done an amazing job. Red Bull have done an amazing job for many, many years. They continuously surprise me, and I put my hand up many, many years ago when I was younger.
"I was like, there’s no way they’re going to be able to do what these other teams like McLaren with all that heritage, Ferrari with all that heritage, but they have, and they proved me wrong, and they’ve continued to have amazing success over the years.
"But this one is where the engine, I was like, there’s no way that anyone’s going to be able to build a better engine than what Mercedes, for example, or Ferrari are capable of doing with the resources they have and the experience they have and the IP.
"And yet again, they proved us wrong, everybody wrong again, and they built the best engine.”
The seven-time world champion added that Red Bull had recovered from a difficult start to the year.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Joe Portlock / Getty Images
“Obviously, they had a little bit of a wobbly start, but like you saw last year, they’ve got an amazing car, they’ve got great drivers, clearly got great leadership, and I think they will be very, very hard to... they’re just as quick through all the corners as us in the last race, and that’s been our strength, so they’ve matched us now through the corners, and they’re three, four tenths quicker down the straights.”
Red Bull decided to build its own engines after Honda’s original decision to leave F1, setting up Red Bull Powertrains in Milton Keynes and bringing in Ford as a partner for the new regulations.
Its progress has come at the expense of rivals with far more experience of building F1 engines. Hamilton’s comments mirror those of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who said in an earlier session that Red Bull had become “the most consistently quick car” over the last few weeks.
Red Bull heads into the weekend seven points behind McLaren in the fight for third in the constructors’ championship, with Verstappen chasing a third straight win. The Dutchman finished second-fastest in FP1 behind Charles Leclerc.