Alex Albon will have to show his overtaking skills on his Red Bull debut as Honda bring an engine upgrade to the Belgian Grand Prix.

The Japanese manufacturer has been deliberating when to introduce the Spec 4 power unit with Red Bull keen to have a fresh engine for the Singapore GP, while Honda wants to be strong at their home race at Suzuka.

It would appear though that the team has won that discussion with Albon and Daniil Kvyat both taking the engine at Spa, meaning both will start from the back of the grid.

“We are introducing the Spec 4 version of our PU at this event," Honda technical director Toyoharu Tanabe confirmed.

“As usual, we have focused on improving both reliability and performance, in the hope of achieving even better results with both teams in this part of the season.

“Our plan is that only Albon and Kvyat will run it at Spa for strategic reasons, looking at the rest of the season as a whole.

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“The driver swap between Albon and Pierre Gasly has no effect on how we operate at the race, and we continue to do our best to support all four of our drivers.

“As per the Sporting Regulations, Albon now takes on what was Gasly’s PU usage in terms of all the components that make up the PU and vice versa.”

There is no word yet on when Gasly and Max Verstappen will get to use the Spec 4, although next weekend in Monza would be the natural choice.

Traditionally, Red Bull have seen the power-orientated tracks as an opportunity to take penalties, accepting that their chances of victory were low.

But Verstappen believes that has changed thanks to Honda.

"Last year we were definitely down on power, and on those critical tracks it was definitely quite painful," he said.

"This year we are close to Mercedes. Ferrari is, of course, flying on the straight, but they have less downforce.

"We know that we still can improve our car and from the engine side, they are pushing it hard, but it's all very planned and measured and without any silly risk-taking.

"It's not like suddenly there is an engine failure out of the blue because they did something, it's all very structured and I like that. It's not reckless with engine modes and stuff."