Daniel Ricciardo and Kevin Magnussen will be the beneficiaries of the upgraded Renault power unit during this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix.
After the news that Renault would only be able to supply one of the upgraded power units to each of its two teams this weekend, Red Bull Racing and the Renault Sport F1 teams had the tough decision to make to decide which of their drivers would use the engine in Monaco.
Despite Max Verstappen taking Red Bull’s first win since 2014 two weeks ago in Spain, it will be Ricciardo who will get the first usage of the Renault upgrade, that is expected to be about two-tenths of a second faster around the Monaco circuit than its predecessor.
Both Ricciardo and Verstappen tested with the upgrade during the post-Spanish Grand Prix test, and felt it was a vast improvement on the one that they’ve been racing with so far in 2016, and both drivers should have the use of the new unit in the Canadian Grand Prix that follows.
Likewise at Renault, with Magnussen getting the upgrade in Monaco, team-mate Jolyon Palmer will get his first taste of the power unit at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve next month.
Palmer did not test the new power unit in Spain after sitting out the test in favour of test driver Esteban Ocon, with both Magnussen and Ocon being impressed by the upgrade.
