Daniel Ricciardo does not need to take a ꦕgrid penalty for this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix despite the initial fears of the Red Bull Formula 1 team.

Ricciardo won last time out in Monaco despite suffering a failure on his MGU-K, requiring a change for Canada, while engine supplier Renault is also bringing a major update t🍨o its power unit to the grand prix in Montreal.

Red Bull technical chief Adrian Newey said earlier this week that Ricciardo would “defin✨itely” be taking a grid penalty for exceeding his allowance of power unit elements for the season, only for the team to discover upon arrival in Canada that this was not the case.

“Currently no. The answer 🧔is no,” Ricciardo said when asked if he’d have to take a penalty.

“Obviously if something happens in practice then we will probably have to take one, but no. N🎃o is the answer today.

“I’ve bꦡeen told that there is no penalty. If something happens in practice then and we are forced to change something th🍌en I will get a penalty.

“But for now, we still have enough parts to run, and if it runs reliable we will do the wholꩵe weekend with it🐈.”

However, Riccia🎉rdo conceded that he is by no means out of the woods when it comes to engine penalꦜties in 2018, saying he may face a drop as soon as the next race in France.

“It could come as soon as Paul Ricard. When I heard whispers of taking a penalty here, at that point I was like ‘I will take it in Paul Ricard b✤ut not here’,” Ricciardo said.

“This is such a difficult circuit ꧙for overtaking. And having such good momentum at the moment, I think a penalty would take a bit of wind out of our sail🏅s.

“If we can escape this weekend w✨ithout it, then I’d rather take it somewhere else.”&n🧜bsp;

Ricciardo heads into this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix sitting third in the drivers’ championship, 38 points behind points l𒁃eader Lewis Hamilton. The Aꦗustralian is remaining realistic about his title chances, though, saying he remains an outsider to the main battle.

“There is a chance, it is st🦩ill an outside chance. I would say it is probably the most realistic chance we’ve had in the last few years,” Ricciardo said.

“It is still an outside because even we are a bit quicker than let’s say Lewis, it is still a lot of points to catch on him. It is not like the season is starting today. We are 40 p𝄹oints behind him, it is still a big gap, so we need to be really superior to really win the championship.

“We have a chance to match him for examꦉple, over the course of the season, but can we be significantly better? I think that is still an outside chance.”