Ricciardo, Kvyat set for engine penalties at Monza
Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo have been told to brace themselves for grid penalties at the Italian Grand Prix, with Red Bull chiefs convinced it will be the best place to run a new engine.
The duo are getting to the end of the predicted life of their current pool of engines, and Red Bull is eager not to risk needing to take a new power unit at Singapore next month, where it believes it can fight for a strong result.
That means Kvyat and Ricciardo will be given the new engines at Monza, which will shuffle them down the grid depending on just how many new elements they take.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner said: "I am fairly certain we will be taking new engines with both cars, considering the amount of races left.
"It is inevitable that we will be staring down the barrels of our next penalty, and strategically Monza is the most likely.
"We don't want to be going into Singapore with old engines or any risk, that is our chance to shine."
Double change unlikely
Although McLaren made use of a loophole in the regulations to introduce two new power units at the Belgian Grand Prix, such a move is not so essential for Red Bull.
That is because there is a new specification engine coming for the Russian Grand Prix, which will mean further grid penalties when it is introduced.
It could be, however, that the team decides to do a double-shuffle at the Sochi race, to give itself a larger pool of power units for the final races of the campaign.
Podium shot at Spa
Horner reckons that Red Bull had a shout of a podium finish in Belgium, prior to Ricciardo's retirement with a suspected energy recovery failure.
"I think for Daniil Kvyat, he drove a strong race," explained Horner. "I thought our strategy was good, going soft then hard and then on a soft set of tyres. So to go from 12th to 4th, at this track, is beyond our expectations.
"It is a shame for Daniel Ricciardo as he was effectively running the same strategy but was further up the road.
"I think he would have been fighting for the podium with those guys ahead of him."
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