Nico Rosberg has moved on to his fourth engine of the season for the Singapore Grand Prix after Mercedes deemed it too risky to revert back to his troublesome Monza power unit.
A cooling issue in Monza forced Rosberg to switch from Mercedes' newly-upgraded engine to a six-race old power unit ahead of qualifying, which eventually failed two laps from the chequered flag. His new engine will be the same spec as the upgrade but moves him closer to a grid penalty, which drivers receive after exceeding four power units.
Mercedes hopes to use the upgraded Monza power unit - his third engine - before the end of the season but doubts remain about its reliability, meaning Rosberg will run his new unit from the start of FP1 at Marina Bay this weekend.
"New engine yes, and we are not sure how compromising it will be going forward yet," he confirmed. "Most likely a small compromise at least and maybe a bigger one, depending, but we don't know yet."
That retirement in Monza saw Rosberg fall 53 points behind team-mate and championship leader Lewis Hamilton. However, the German driver is refusing to write off his chances of winning the title.
When a journalist said the odds were no longer stacked in his favour, Rosberg replied: "No, definitely not. But I have the chance, so I keep believing or I don't, and have chosen to keep believing because it is going to help for the next couple of races and historically also in sport anything can happen.
"So there are still seven races to go and lots of points and so I keep pushing. With the car that we have it is possible to win every race weekend if I do a good job, which is a great feeling. So I focus on the race weekend and see what Lewis does."