Explained: Why the Red Bull engine received the best rating

– The ADUO announcement (Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities in Formula 1) by the FIA was long awaited. In fact, the press release was already ready after all teams and manufacturers were informed of the results of the first period during the Monaco Grand Prix. Only the sentence about the second period was missing.

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The long wait was due to Red Bull expressing significant dissatisfaction behind the scenes with the result of the first period, with even Red Bull boss Oliver Mintzlaff involved. However, Red Bull had very few options to challenge the result.

The system undeniably has its weaknesses – more on that later – but the teams and manufacturers themselves agreed to it last year. Red Bull Ford Powertrains could therefore only request a factual review, which also did not change the result.

FIA Formula Sport Director Nikolas Tombazis said the federation’s measurements were correct, although Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies argued there was “not a single data point” showing that Red Bull had the best engine.

Among other things, Red Bull pointed to its deficit on power-sensitive tracks. According to Mekies, this deficit was greater than on tracks like Monaco and the Hungaroring, where power units play a less significant role.

In reality, however, this picture is also related to energy management on low-energy tracks and how good – or bad – a power unit is in this regard.

Performance index remains a big secret

These are factors the FIA does not consider, as the ADUO ranking only measures the performance of the combustion engine. The FIA cannot disclose too much about the exact measurement methods and data publicly, not least because they involve intellectual property and confidential information.

“Due to the confidential nature of this information, no further details on the measurements of the power unit performance index will be communicated,” the FIA statement says.

The press release therefore only states that Mercedes falls into the category for a deficit between two and four percent, which grants the manufacturer an upgrade opportunity in 2026 and another in 2027.

Ferrari, Audi, and Honda all fall into the category for a deficit of more than four percent, which gives them two new homologations – and thus updates – in the current season as well as two more next year.

Additionally, all these manufacturers receive extra financial leeway under the budget cap. For Mercedes High Performance Powertrains, this means an additional three million US dollars, while Ferrari is even allowed to invest up to 4.65 million dollars more.

Notably, an additional safety net was introduced specifically for manufacturers in serious trouble – like Honda. A manufacturer that is more than ten percent behind the best combustion engine would receive up to eleven million dollars per ADUO period, plus an additional eight million dollars for 2026 in total.

However, after the first period it was known that Honda did not fully meet the criteria at that time. The Japanese manufacturer can still live with the result of the FIA analysis.

“I think the number we received from the FIA looks reasonable. I would say this number is fair. And thanks to ADUO, we are now working hard to further develop our engine,” said chief engineer Shintaro Orihara in an exclusive interview.

FIA wanted to include championship standings in ADUO

The second period subsequently did not lead to the distribution of additional tokens, suggesting that the picture has not changed significantly. For Red Bull, this could theoretically mean one of two things: either the newcomer is still at the top of the ranking, or it is no longer first but its deficit is less than two percent.

Even the latter scenario would not bring a token. According to Motorsport-Total.com, however, the ranking and the gaps between manufacturers have largely remained the same. This means Red Bull Ford Powertrains is indeed still classified by the FIA as the manufacturer of the best combustion engine in Formula 1.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has acknowledged that Mercedes has the overall best power unit, but as is known, ADUO only considers the combustion engine. This highlights one of the system’s weaknesses: the measurement only concerns the combustion engine, but the upgrade opportunities granted go much further and also include the electric components.

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Red Bull still has catching up to do on the electric side but cannot do anything about it because it has the most powerful combustion engine. And so the newcomer is effectively checkmated.

It is a weakness of the system, but the FIA cannot be held fully responsible. Tombazis emphasized that he was open to considering more parameters, but the teams and manufacturers pushed last year to keep the system as simple as possible.

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This also includes the size of the turbocharger, an aspect Tombazis wanted to include. In practice, this did not happen, which benefited Ferrari. The Italian manufacturer had an advantage at the start of this year thanks to its smaller turbo but paid a price in terms of performance.

However, ADUO allows Ferrari to work on this, especially now that it has received two tokens. This raises the question of whether this is fair, given that these are deliberate design decisions. But that is how the system works.

Furthermore, the FIA intended last year to consider the championship standings. After all, ADUO was not meant to give the dominant force even more upgrade opportunities, but according to insiders, Red Bull was among those who opposed including the championship standings.

That was understandable based on what was known at the time. But in the current reality, it has turned against Red Bull. When the discussions took place last year, it was not unreasonable for Red Bull to think: As a newcomer, we will probably be more than two percent behind, but if the chassis is good, we could still be relatively high in the championship table.

In that case, it would logically have been advantageous if the FIA did not consider this aspect. In practice, however, the situation is exactly the opposite: Red Bull’s engine is highly competitive, but the chassis was below average at the start of this year, so the championship standings could actually have represented a lifeline from Red Bull’s perspective.

FIA acknowledges weaknesses in the system – what now?

All this together explains why Red Bull is the only manufacturer not allowed to work on its power unit during the season. There is still one way to change that: the third period, which ends after the Mexico City Grand Prix.

However, Red Bull does not control its fate itself and is instead dependent on its rivals. If they do not use their upgrades – especially Mercedes – and do not suddenly extract more from them than before for whatever reason, Red Bull will remain checkmated.

The ADUO results have therefore not only revealed something about Red Bull but also exposed some weaknesses of the system. The FIA also readily acknowledges this, for example when Tombazis was asked in Hungary whether the system currently works as it should.

“I think our measurement has proven to be very accurate in my opinion. That said: Has everything worked well? No, because obviously people are not satisfied and so on. Do we need to think about improvements in the future? Yes, I would say,” said Tombazis.

When announcing the results, he again hinted that the system would need to be revised in the coming years: “This is the first year of ADUO, so of course there are areas we can further develop over time, in discussion with all PU manufacturers.”

Behind the scenes, however, this process is not very advanced yet and must lead to more concrete proposals in the coming months. In this respect, the current result may be the clearest illustration of some weaknesses of the system.

The manufacturer with the best overall power unit in Formula 1 receives development opportunities due to its deficit in the combustion engine, while a manufacturer that has catching up to do on the electric side is not allowed to do anything about it because of the ADUO numbers.

This gives food for thought, but for now, manufacturers and teams – including Red Bull – must also look in the mirror, given that they agreed to this system last year.

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