"It's exceptional," says Liam Lawson of the Red Bull-Ford engine.

Of course, it is other issues that have kept Max Verstappen quiet about the engine, which, pre-season, was tipped by Mercedes as the engine to have. Funny that.

Thus far, each of the Red Bull powered drivers has one points finish to his name, two if you count Lawson's seventh in Saturday's Sprint.

"I think it's exceptional, to be honest," said the kiwi at the weekend after finishing seventh in the Grand Prix. "Obviously, we had some issues from Melbourne," he continued, "and unfortunately for Red Bull, they had a car drop out as well, but with new regulations, I think it's not expected, but more understanding.

"As frustrating as it is for all of us, from where we were a year ago, we weren't hearing amazing things and weren't super-confident about it," he admitted, "and now we have quite a strong engine. For us, it really helped us in Melbourne. It's extremely positive."

"We're continuing to learn and find more performance, which is the goal through the season," the New Zealander continued, "but I think they've done a very, very good job."

Racing Bulls are currently level fifth with their sister team in the standings, both on 12 points, however, Mercedes-powered Alpine is just behind on 10, with McLaren on 18, as Mercedes and Ferrari disappear into the distance.

However, Lawson is keen to point out that while Mercedes has the clear advantage in terms of straight-line speed, Red Bull's unit is proving competitive elsewhere.

"We're looking at everybody's deployment methods," he said of the topic that currently dominates the headlines. "But on top of that, when you have very different cornering speeds, it's very hard to compare as well, because depending on how much speed you carry through a corner, it depends on how much you are charging the battery.

"For us, there were a few corners in which we struggled," he admitted, "but it was actually giving us a bit of a boost down the straight because we were off throttle through the corners and charging a bit more.

"Sometimes, it's not that simple to compare, because you have to be doing the exact same speed through the corners to try to deploy the same as somebody else. So it's quite hard to compare.

"Obviously, we're looking at what everybody is doing. We have to try to maximise our own deployment depending on what we are doing."