Max Verstappen says Red Bull "definitely" has no plans to take a grid penalty at Monza despite the venue's suitability for such a tactical move.
Verstappen and teammate Sergio Perez lost their second engines of the season due to crash damage sustained at Silverstone and at the Hungaroring.
The predicament has made a grid drop likely at some point in the back half of the season for the current leader of the drivers' championship.
As a high-speed track with ample opportunities for overtaking, Monza's Temple of Speed is theoretically a good circuit for Red Bull to introduce a fourth engine into Verstappen's pool of hardware and endure a 10-place grid drop.
But Verstappen believes his current power unit is too recent to justify a change.
"We are looking where, if necessary, we will take a new engine," said the Dutchman at monza on Thursday.
"I can't say anything about that now. We don't know yet."
Red Bull will resume this weekend its fierce battle with Mercedes. But the Brackley squad's impressive track record at Monza coupled with the track's low-downforce characteristics that will suit its W12 provide Mercedes with an edge.
However, Red Bull's level of performance this season could allow the Milton Keynes-based team and Verstappen to give their rivals a run for their money in Italy, in Saturday's sprint qualifying and in Sunday's race.
"For sure, compared to previous years [Red Bull is more competitive], but I'm not sure if it's going to be enough to fight them," Verstappen said.
"Nevertheless, this weekend again, with sprint qualifying and stuff, it's going to be very different.
"I just hope we did our homework before getting here and we can be very competitive. It's a bit difficult to say where we will stand. I definitely don't expect it to be like Zandvoort."
Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
Spain was supposed to be a weekend of consolidation for McLaren, but for Oscar Piastri,…
Freddie Slater’s rapid rise through the junior ranks is taking another significant step forward, with…
Liam Lawson has spent the past three Formula 1 weekends with an unusual problem: preparing…
Laurent Mekies says Red Bull had little choice but to order Max Verstappen to hand…
On this day in 1985, Ayrton Senna won the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, skillfully…
Ferrari’s decision to pull Lewis Hamilton out of the Spanish Grand Prix after just seven…