Laurent Mekies has confirmed he wants a conversation with the FIA about its ADUO findings as Red Bull cannot find any data that identifies Red Bull Powertrains\u2019 ICE as F1\u2019s benchmark.<\/p>\n
As reported by PlanetF1.com in Monaco, RBPT\u2019s internal combustion engine emerged as the benchmark ahead of Mercedes\u2019 ICE when the FIA informed the teams about its Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities [ADUO] findings.<\/p>\n
Red Bull wants FIA talks over RBPT benchmark ruling<\/p>\n
Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google<\/a> to your favourites list for news you can trust<\/p>\n The FIA implemented ADUO this season as the sport adopted a new engine formula.<\/p>\n The purpose of ADUO is to give the sport\u2019s power unit manufacturers the ability to improve their product if it is found to be lagging behind the benchmark performer. It, though, only covers the performance of the internal combustion engine.<\/p>\n This was measured throughout the opening five grand prix weekends, Australia through to Canada, with the teams informed of the results in Monaco.<\/p>\n Those results saw Red Bull\u2019s ICE emerge as the benchmark ahead of that built by Mercedes. The latter\u2019s ICE was more than 2 per cent behind the RBPT, with Mercedes receiving one upgrade opportunity. Ferrari, Audi and Honda each receive two upgrade opportunities as their ICEs were more than 4 per cent down.<\/p>\n PlanetF1.com understood that Red Bull was left surprised by the findings and would be seeking clarification from the FIA.<\/p>\n Team principal Mekies confirmed this after Sunday\u2019s Barcelona Grand Prix, where Max Verstappen was the best-placed Red Bull driver in fourth place, but 40s down on race winner Lewis Hamilton.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are completely okay with the fact that the rules state that you should only try to estimate the pecking order of the ICE power. We are completely okay with that. We have all agreed to that and we don\u2019t think that is the issue,\u201d Mekies told PlanetF1.com and other media.<\/p>\n \u201cWe certainly would like to have a deeper conversation because we do not see one single data sample that indicates that we would have an advantage over our friends at Mercedes.\u201d<\/p>\n The team boss was asked if he was worried that other teams could use their development tokens to \u201cplay a game of chess\u201d to stay on top of the ICE rankings.<\/p>\n According to the Frenchman, power sensitivity creates variables in the FIA\u2019s findings, and so far he hasn\u2019t seen anything to hint that Red Bull\u2019s ICE is the best on the grid.<\/p>\n \u201cCertainly,\u201d Mekies replied, \u201cyou would need to have extreme certainty in the way you are assessing the ICE pecking order, in order to have the right confidence to give it to the dominant team and not to the team that is chasing the dominant team.<\/p>\n \u201cEspecially when you get relative performance variations from track layout to track layout that are perfectly consistent with the ICE power sensitivity.<\/p>\n \u201cYou go to Canada, high ICE power sensitivity, we qualified sixth. You go to Monaco, low ICE power sensitivity, we qualified pretty much pretty much four-hundredths from pole. You go to Barcelona, again high ICE power sensitivity, you qualify sixth again.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do not see one single data sample where we estimate ourselves higher than competition, let alone being consistently above them.\u201d<\/p>\n Verstappen was also asked about the ADUO findings and whether he feared Red Bull now had one hand tied behind its back.<\/p>\n More on the FIA\u2019s ADUO findings<\/p>\n Red Bull revealed as F1 2026 engine benchmark in FIA document<\/a><\/p>\n Red Bull seeks FIA answers after surprise ADUO benchmark verdict<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, I hope not.<\/p>\n Pressed on \u201cbut could it\u201d, Verstappen replied: \u201cI hope not.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think I want to answer it at the moment. At some point. I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n Additional reporting by Thomas Maher<\/p>\n Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n