Red Bull handed 'pretty cool' verdict after striking first-year success

Red Bull Powertrains has earned recognition it "deserves" after recent victories for Max Verstappen in Bahrain and Singapore.

That is the verdict of Racing Bulls driver Arvid Lindblad following Verstappen's back-to-back wins aboard the Red Bull-Ford power unit, triumphing at the Sakhir International and Marina Bay Street Circuits earlier this month.

Both results marked the first successes of the season for the Milton Keynes-based team, whose engine division built the power unit entirely in-house for the first time.

The FIA classified Red Bull's internal combustion engine as the grid's benchmark unit during its Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities assessment, a status that has restricted the team from introducing further performance hardware for the remainder of the campaign.

Lindblad, who races for sister outfit Racing Bulls and therefore also runs the same power unit, said the engine has impressed him throughout the year, even as the wider Red Bull operation endured a difficult season on the chassis side.

"The engine has been really good all year," said Lindblad, speaking to the media, including RacingNews365.

"I can imagine that no team has come in before and made an engine in their first year and had it classified as the best engine, which I think is pretty cool, and in the Red Bull spirit.

"Obviously, it hasn't been an easy year for Red Bull. They'll openly say that they haven't had the performance they wanted.

"I think that maybe hasn't given the PU guys the credit they deserved, because they've had other issues.

"So it's nice that they get the recognition that they deserve because we have had a really good engine all year. I'm very, very happy for all of them."

Red Bull sits fourth in the constructors' standings on 332 points, just seven points behind McLaren going into this weekend's United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin.