“They deserve their success”: McLaren boss praises Red Bull for acing the new regulations

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes that Red Bull's RB19 appears to be well ahead of the rest of the competition, and the Milton Keynes-based team look set to win the championships this year.

Red Bull's competitors, on the other hand, have no need to complain about what Red Bull are doing and believe the team's opponents should simply do a better job. McLaren team principal Andrea Stella agreed that Red Bull's dominance in F1 merely meant that everyone else needed to up their game.

He said:

"When you look at the car, you see the sophistication. So, I think they deserve their success. It's up to us to do a better job and go and challenge them."

He continued:

"It's not mind-blowing, for me, it's just the outcome of a team that has an edge in terms of knowledge, and in terms of transforming this knowledge into performance solutions. So well done to Red Bull."

But the idea of the title race being gone so quickly has others worried that a one-sided season may turn off viewers. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said:

"Even if it’s not great for the show that the same guys win all the time, it’s because they’ve done a good job and we haven’t. We all hope for a good entertainment factor. But it’s our duty, with all we have, to catch up and fight these guys.”

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton stated that Red Bull is the most dominant car he has ever raced in the turbo hybrid era. He said during the post-race interview after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix:

“I think when we were fast, we weren’t that fast. I think it’s the fastest car I’ve seen, especially compared to the rest.”

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz explained that he never understood why people were concerned about a single team dominating because it was always the result of someone doing a better job:

“I've never been a fan of being concerned of one team dominating, because if they are, they've done such a good job, they deserve it."

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Red Bull's Max Verstappen says he's not here to finish second

Max Verstappen paid the price for a drive-shaft malfunction in Saturday (March 18)'s qualifying, which dropped him to 15th on the grid in Jeddah, while his teammate Sergio Perez began on the pole.

Verstappen said:

"I recovered to second which is good and of course in general the whole feeling in the team, everyone is happy, but personally I am not happy because I am not here to be second, especially when you are working very hard also back at the factory to make sure that you arrive here in a good state and basically making sure that everything is spot on."

Max Verstappen maintained his Formula 1 world championship lead in Saudi Arabia on Sunday (March 19), although he was disappointed to finish second behind teammate Sergio Perez.

The double world champion, who won the first race in Bahrain with Perez second, maintained his overall lead since he recorded the quickest lap on his way to victory.