Daniel Ricciardo close to picking up second F1 engine penalty

Ricciardo collected his first grid penalty in Austria for exceeding the permitted allocation of four engines per season given the problems encountered with the Renault power unit this year.

He then suffered a spectacular engine failure during free practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix, and with power circuits Spa and Monza up next, Red Bull is anticipating another issue of some sort to occur soon.

"I think we're going to have to take another engine, particularly Ricciardo," said Red Bull team boss Christian Horner.

"Engine five is all he's got for Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays now so inevitably, probably in the next couple of races, we're going to have to take another unit.

"Whether that's with one driver or both, we'll have to have a look at the numbers over the coming week."

Despite the incident with Ricciardo's power unit at the Hungaroring, Renault appears to have improved its reliability recently.

Horner added: "The engine that blew up on Friday was the same spec as the Bahrain engine, but since they've put the new piston in it seems to be behaving a little more reliably.

"Hopefully that will continue in the second half of the year.

"I'm not sure what Carlos Sainz's issue was [a technical problem that resulted in a loss of boost pressure to his Toro Rosso], but three of the [Renault] cars obviously saw the chequered flag."

Horner was upbeat following Red Bull's double podium finish at the Hungaroring, which included a maiden top-three for Daniil Kvyat in F1.

However, third-placed Ricciardo had a shot at a second consecutive Hungarian GP victory, only for collisions with both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to cost him.

"It was a great team performance, with this type of circuit, with its lack of dependency on straightline speed playing to our strengths," said Horner.

"There was a big contact with Lewis which damaged Daniel's car quite significantly, but despite that he was able to close in on the leading pair and he was always going to have a go.

"He obviously got a run up the inside [on Rosberg], got a bit too deep and then Nico came across his bows on the exit.

"It looked like a racing incident, but it's a shame.

"Without that, if he had managed to pass Nico, I'm sure it would have set up an interesting finish with Seb."