Max Verstappen prepares to take grid penalties for engine benefits

Max Verstappen has prepared himself for future grid penalties in order to give his RB15 engine developments. Both Red Bull and Toro Rosso have been given updated power units from Honda for the Grand Prix in Baku.

Despite the fact that the grid penalty will put Verstappen on the backfoot, he's ready to accept the forfeit.

"Actually I'm really happy because they keep pushing really hard to bring updates and that's always good," said Verstappen in Baku.

"I think I showed last year than even when you start in the back you can still finish on the podium, for example, like in Austin, so I don't think it a major problem.

"I'm happier if we can say at the end of the season that we really closed the gap to Mercedes and Ferrari in terms of power because we used a few more engines. It's fine."

Verstappen confirms the engine upgrade this weekend is focused on reliability rather than performance. On Thursday afternoon, Marko made a U-turn on the potential 20bhp improvement.

"It's mainly just about reliability and reliability of the engine, so I guess it will be a little bit better in terms of performance but like nothing massive," he added.

"It can always be better. That's why they push for an even better engine concept. I'm happy that they did it because hopefully, we can run that engine a little bit longer compared to the first one, which we can still use."