Haas to take updated Ferrari power unit in Monaco

Haas will take Ferrari's updated Formula 1 power unit ahead of this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix.

Ferrari fast-tracked its Spec 2 power unit for the 2019 season to the Spanish Grand Prix earlier this month, but it was not made available to customer teams Haas and Alfa Romeo, who were instead offered to take the update in either Monaco or Canada.

Speaking on Wednesday in Monaco, Haas F1 team chief Guenther Steiner confirmed that the new power unit would be fitted to both VF-19 cars for this weekend.

"We’re running number two. We've now get the same spec introduced for Ferrari in Barcelona," Steiner said.

"I don’t know how much the power difference is and how much better the drivability is. It’s not only power, it’s energy management and all that stuff. I don’t know the maps.

"But for sure, it will not be worse."

The news comes as a boost to drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean, who recovered from a three-race run out of the points to both score in Spain, finishing P7 and P10 respectively after struggles with tyre issues at the earlier rounds.

However, Steiner said he was not as hopeful of the team's chances in Monaco as he was in Spain.

"I would say I am not afraid, but I’m not optimistic," Steiner said.

"Here the thing is, by using the soft family of tyres, going down to the softest, the C5, it could be we can get it into the window but I don’t know yet. We have to wait until tomorrow.

"I’m 50-50 on it. If they work, it will be fine, if they don’t work, we’ll have to make the best of it and just wait until they come to us, like Barcelona, Spielberg is coming, and Paul Ricard.

"But it could be that we’re OK tomorrow, depending on whether we can get C5 working in qualifying.

"If we can do qualifying well here, we’ll be fine. The race is a different story."