The Dutchman is already facing a five-place grid drop for his part in a collision with Romain Grosjean at the Monaco Grand Prix.

A change of engine to introduce his fifth power unit would land him with a further 10-place drop – and a possible time penalty in the race if he did not qualify high enough.

"We are thinking about it and at the moment nothing has been decided," he said. "It will be a difficult race for us anyway so maybe it is a good opportunity to take the fifth engine."

Renault more confident of reliability

Renault has introduced reliability upgrades to its engine for this weekend's Canadian GP, so is more confident about getting through to the end of the race.

But with its pace not as strong as at Monaco it is more likely to take a tactical change.

Verstappen added: "We know it will be a hard weekend, like we saw in practice, so for sure we will have to decide tonight."