{"id":725574,"date":"2026-06-09T17:23:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T17:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/725574\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T17:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T17:23:14","slug":"has-f1s-aduo-failed-at-the-first-hurdle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/725574\/","title":{"rendered":"Has F1’s ADUO failed at the first hurdle?"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most shocking moments of the Monaco Grand Prix weekend had nothing to do with the racing. Instead, it happened in motorhomes on Sunday afternoon, when the FIA distributed a one-page document to Formula 1<\/a>\u2018s power unit manufacturers.<\/p>\n

The letter contained the ruling body\u2019s decision about which teams would be allowed to upgrade their engines following its analysis of the 2026 power unit of all manufacturers: Mercedes<\/a>, Ferrari<\/a>, Red Bull<\/a> Ford, Audi<\/a> and Honda<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The verdict was so counterintuitive that it was no surprise that the reaction was mostly one of shock.<\/p>\n

Red Bull Ford has been declared Formula 1\u2019s best power unit under the Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) system, which is designed to ensure that no one manufacturer dominates the series. It means that Mercedes<\/a> and Ferrari<\/a> will both be able to upgrade their engines during the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

The broader context is easy to understand if you have been following the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

Mercedes, whose power unit has just been officially rated as inferior to Red Bull<\/a>\u2018s, has won all races so far this year and currently leads both the drivers\u2019 and constructors\u2019 championships by a considerable margin, with Kimi Antonelli<\/a> extending his title lead with a dominant victory, his fifth in a row.<\/p>\n

Red Bull<\/a>, meanwhile, faces the agony of knowing that its hands are now tied and it can\u2019t make improvements, and has less spending and bench test hours than others for having, according to the FIA, produced a debut engine that\u2019s superior to that of its rivals.<\/p>\n

\"Kimi<\/p>\n

Mercedes has won all six races of 2026 so far<\/p>\n

The verdict is disappointing for Ferrari as well: its engine has been judged to be lagging Red Bull\u2019s by such a margin that it will be entitled to two upgrades this season. And it might have imagined that this would allow it to match the pace of the championship-leading Mercedes.<\/p>\n

But because Mercedes has also been allowed an upgrade \u2014 just the one \u2014 the Scuderia\u2019s hopes of reaching parity have been dampened.<\/p>\n

On the face of it, the catch-up system designed to level the playing field has, at its very first assessment, benefited the dominant team.<\/p>\n

What ADUO was supposed to do<\/p>\n

The ghost haunting the 2026 regulations has always been 2014.<\/p>\n

When Formula 1 last undertook a wholesale power unit overhaul, Mercedes produced a hybrid V6 so far ahead of its rivals that the competitive order was effectively set for the better part of a decade.<\/p>\n

The sport\u2019s governing body was determined not to allow that to happen again, and ADUO was supposed to be the safeguard.<\/p>\n

The mechanism is straightforward in principle.<\/p>\n

ADUO is granted to manufacturers who are down on performance to the leading power unit by 2% or more. Those trailing by between 2% and 4% get one opportunity to develop their power unit this season and one more in 2027, while those trailing by 4% or more get two opportunities in 2026 and two further in 2027.<\/p>\n

There is also a financial component: any manufacturer between 2% and 4% off the benchmark gets an extra cost-cap allowance of several million dollars depending on the bracket.<\/p>\n

\"Mercedes<\/p>\n

The FIA\u2019s goal was to avoid a repeat of the initial hybrid era<\/p>\n

The intention was that no manufacturer would ever again find itself in the position Honda<\/a> occupied at McLaren<\/a>, technically capable of building a brilliant chassis while being paralysed by a power unit it had no means of fixing.<\/p>\n

The verdict from Monaco reflects how wide the performance gaps have grown.<\/p>\n

Beyond the Red Bull benchmark, Mercedes was indexed as next-best but more than 2% behind, earning it one upgrade opportunity.<\/p>\n

Ferrari, Audi and Honda<\/a> have all been deemed to be over 4% adrift of Red Bull and get two upgrade homologations as a result.<\/p>\n

Mercedes will also receive an extra $3 million cost-cap allowance and an additional 70 hours of bench testing.<\/p>\n

The problem hiding in plain sight<\/p>\n

Here is where the logic of ADUO begins to unravel.<\/p>\n

The system assesses only the internal combustion engine element of the power unit.<\/p>\n

Any advantage a team has from better energy harvesting, deployment, efficiency, or more advanced management of energy \u2013 which includes control of the MGU-K or better battery technology, is totally outside the remit of what falls under the qualifying criteria for additional development.<\/p>\n

\"Max<\/p>\n

ADUO only takes into account the ICE\u2019s performance<\/p>\n

\n Grand Prix Photo\n <\/p>\n

That might have been a reasonable design choice in the old hybrid formula, where the ICE contributed the vast majority of a power unit\u2019s output. It is a far more questionable one in 2026.<\/p>\n

Under the new rules, the power output from the ICE has been reduced from 560kW to 400kW, while the output from the hybrid system has been increased from 120kW to 350kW.<\/p>\n

In other words, electrical power now accounts for roughly half of total output, and in certain circuit conditions, where harvesting and deployment cycles are optimised, it can be decisive.<\/p>\n

The ICE, the only element ADUO actually measures, is no longer the primary differentiator. The electric architecture \u2014 battery efficiency, MGU-K integration, energy deployment mapping \u2014 is where the fastest manufacturers have built their advantage.<\/p>\n

ADUO assessment is not representative of full power unit performance, given that the energy recovery system (ERS) also plays a crucial role in overall power output.<\/p>\n

What this means in practice is that the ICE-only benchmark may bear very little relationship to which manufacturer\u2019s complete power unit is actually quickest.<\/p>\n

Red Bull\u2019s combustion engine has been judged the best, but Red Bull is struggling compared to Mercedes and Ferrari, already languishing 172 points behind the German manufacturer.<\/p>\n

A perverse outcome<\/p>\n

The consequences of the verdict compound in ways that are difficult to justify.<\/p>\n

\"Kimi<\/p>\n

The decision is likely to generate a storm in the paddock<\/p>\n

\n Grand Prix Photo\n <\/p>\n

With the way the system works, Mercedes can now devote extra resources and bench testing to improving its engine and not bring upgrades on track until it chooses, thereby keeping Red Bull as the benchmark while Mercedes itself continues winning.<\/p>\n

That means Red Bull could remain hamstrung for a while yet.<\/p>\n

The team that is dominating the championship will receive development freedoms that the team trailing it will not.<\/p>\n

Ferrari, which has been broadly the second most competitive team, will get two upgrade opportunities this season, but the target it is aiming at has just been given permission to move.<\/p>\n

Ferrari is no longer chasing a stationary target, and if Mercedes has plenty in its back pocket, as many believe it does, it could find that it may not even get any closer despite the extra development opportunities it now has.<\/p>\n

The paddock had not been blind to this possibility.<\/p>\n

Before the verdict landed, Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies<\/a> had articulated what most of those in it believed to be the true pecking order.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at your gap to the best competition, and today we think the pecking order is Mercedes in terms of powertrain ahead of the field,\u201d he said. \u201cWe think behind them there is a group where we see us, Ferrari, Audi \u2013 don\u2019t ask me to quote the numbers because it will be gaming \u2013 but we see certainly a consistent gap compared to the Mercedes-Benz-powered cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then it\u2019s probably fair to say that we read Honda further back. And how is that going to fit any of the grid that the FIA calculation is trying to do? We will soon find out.\u201d<\/p>\n

He found out on Sunday in Monaco, and his answer bore little resemblance to the picture he had just described.<\/p>\n

\"Fernando<\/p>\n

Honda will get the same benefits as Ferrari and Audi<\/p>\n

\n Grand Prix Photo\n <\/p>\n

Toto Wolff, meanwhile, had anticipated a different kind of problem. His concern before the verdict was that rivals would exploit ADUO to close Mercedes\u2019 advantage \u2013 a use of the system he regarded as contrary to its original purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe principle of the ADUO was to allow teams that were on the back foot to catch up \u2014 but not to leapfrog,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The reality has turned out stranger still: the system is not helping a rival like Red Bull catch his team at all. It is helping it pull further away.<\/p>\n

A regulation in need of revision?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to predict that the decision will cause a storm in the paddock and that there will be calls for a change in the way in which performance is measured to incorporate more aspects than simply internal combustion engine power.<\/p>\n

Some might even ask for ADUO to just be scrapped altogether.<\/p>\n

It is hard to argue against that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the most shocking moments of the Monaco Grand Prix weekend had nothing to do with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,351359,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-725574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-audo","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}