{"id":731308,"date":"2026-06-12T06:42:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T06:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/731308\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T06:42:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T06:42:14","slug":"lewis-hamilton-expresses-surprise-at-red-bull-f1-engine-benchmark-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/731308\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton expresses \u2018surprise\u2019 at Red Bull F1 engine benchmark verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lewis Hamilton says it is \u201cdefinitely a surprise\u201d that Red Bull has been judged to have the benchmark Formula 1 engine in 2026.<\/p>\n

F1\u2019s governing body the FIA has deemed the pecking order of the power unit manufacturers to be Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari, Audi and Honda<\/a> as part of the first review of the Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) system in 2026.<\/p>\n

The ranking means that the power unit manufacturer newcomer is not allowed to further develop its engine, while rivals Mercedes<\/a> and Ferrari <\/a>are eligible for improvements.<\/p>\n

\"Hamilton <\/p>\n

Hamilton finished second in Monaco<\/p>\n

Red Bull has questioned the FIA\u2019s verdict <\/a>and is currently holding talks with F1\u2019s governing body, who are reviewing their findings.<\/p>\n

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Seven-time world champion Hamilton<\/a>, who leaked the data after last weekend\u2019s Monaco Grand Prix, told media including Crash.net: \u201cIt is definitely a surprise, because the Red Bull and Mercedes engines are very, very close.<\/p>\n

\u201cRed Bull has done an amazing job with their engine, but so has Mercedes, and I heard there was someone who went from Mercedes to Red Bull.<\/p>\n

“They’ve done something that no one thought they’d do in such a short space of time as a new engine manufacturer, and fair play to them.<\/p>\n

“Mercedes still has a good engine, maybe as good, but it is very, very close between them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamilton secured his second consecutive second place finish in Monaco as he was beaten to a first win as a Ferrari driver by championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The 41-year-old Briton said it is clear where his Ferrari team is lacking compared to Mercedes.<\/p>\n

\"Antonelli <\/p>\n

Antonelli leads in Monaco<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a0XPB Images<\/p>\n

“I’ve not really spoken to them on the analysis, but I think it is just pure downforce,\u201d Hamilton said.<\/p>\n

“In Miami, we brought an upgrade package which the team went pretty hard to bring, and Mercedes didn’t bring an upgrade package, and they won easily.<\/p>\n

“Then they brought a big upgrade package of four-tenths, half-a-second whatever it was, to Montreal, and that being a slow speed circuit, I guess you didn’t see, necessarily, too much of it.<\/p>\n

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“But then we got to Monaco, and I could see when [Kimi Antonelli] was ahead of me just how much earlier he could get onto the power, how much more rear-end he had through the corners, and I couldn’t keep up, and that’s just downforce.”<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our F1 Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton says it is \u201cdefinitely a surprise\u201d that Red Bull has been judged to have the benchmark…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,817,826,823,945,806,805,803,804,918,85],"class_list":["post-731308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-ferrari","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-mercedes","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-red-bull","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731308","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=731308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}