Team principal Maurizio Arrivabene suggested after the last race in Baku that the team was preparing some 'surprises' over the next few races as the outfit aimed for its first race win of the season.

Now, team sources have confirmed that it has decided to make a development tweak for the Red Bull Ring that should help it further maximise its engine performance.

It is understood that Ferrari has changed its MGU-K design to help improve its energy recovery, which could be very valuable around the Austrian track.

Furthermore, fuel supplier Shell is introducing some new updates for this weekend that should deliver a horsepower boost.

Gearbox change

Despite the performance lift from the updates, Sebastian Vettel is already heading into the weekend facing the prospect of a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.

Although there has been no official confirmation, Ferrari has discovered that it will need to change the German's gearbox ahead of Saturday's track action.

That will leave him further down the grid that he would have liked, as he faces an increasing need to close the points gap to his Mercedes rivals.

He remains convinced, however, that Ferrari's title hopes are not over.

"I think we have a real fight," he said. "We are pushing very hard but to be honest, nothing has changed – we are not looking too much at others.

"The team ahead of us is Mercedes, we are looking at ourselves: trying to improve where we need to improve, working on our weaknesses and focusing on our strengths."

Additional reporting by Roberto Chinchero