Ricciardo will test C-Spec engine Friday before taking penalty

Daniel Ricciardo will test out the new Renault spec in Friday's practice sessions on Monza before deciding whether the team will be integrating the new engine and thus taking an engine penalty, team boss Christian Horner has confirmed.

An engine-related penalty has been inevitable for Ricciardo for some weeks now, and Red Bull Racing have decided that they'll take the hit at Monza, as the track doesn't favour them anyway.

The Aussie will drive with the new engine spec on Friday, and if the results please the team, Max Verstappen's car will get the new spec as well on Saturday.

Renault boss Cyril Abiteboul has already acknowledged that Renault themselves won't be using the third spec yet as it still has a lot of reliability issues, but Red Bull don't have much to lose at this point and are prepared to take the punt in order for them to get that bit more performance out of the car.

“There’s a significant amount of cost that’s gone into integrating the engine into the car, because [of] cooling etc., so if there is any performance, which it looks like there is with our fuel partner, we’re happy to take that risk," Horner told Motorsport.com.