FIA announce controversial ADUO ruling as F1 title rivals learn their fate

The FIA has announced its latest controversial ADUO ruling, with Red Bull STILL considered the benchmark when it comes to F1 engines.

ADUO, which stands for Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities, is a new mechanism introduced to F1 in 2026 to encourage close competition by allowing manufacturers to make changes to their homologated power units if they are considered worse than their rivals.

The ADUO system works by comparing each manufacturer’s internal combustion engine (ICE) performance against the best-performing engine, with manufacturers that fall 2% or more behind becoming eligible for extra upgrades.

Currently, if you fall into the 2-4 per cent range, you get one upgrade in the current season, and another upgrade in 2027. However, if you are more than four per cent behind the leading engine, you get two upgrades this season and two more next.

The first period of the ADUO analysis covered the Australian Grand Prix through to the Canadian Grand Prix, and controversially determined that Red Bull were the engine benchmark, with Mercedes second despite their dominance this season.

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FIA confirm ADUO second period results

In an announcement on Wednesday, the FIA has now confirmed the outcome of the second period of ADUO analysis, which looked at the Monaco Grand Prix (Round 7) through to the Hungarian Grand Prix (Round 11).

The FIA has confirmed that for the second period, no additional homologations have been granted to any of the power unit manufacturers.

This essentially means that Red Bull are still considered the benchmark power unit in the sport, with Mercedes remaining in the two to four per cent range behind them, and Ferrari, Honda and Audi remaining more than four per cent behind.

As such, Mercedes will be allowed one additional power unit upgrade in 2026 and another one in 2027. Audi, Ferrari and Honda, meanwhile, will be allowed two additional upgrades in 2026 and two further updates in 2027.

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FIA chief on latest ADUO ruling

In an official FIA statement, the organisation's single seat director Nikolas Tombazis said: “The FIA has undertaken thorough and exhaustive analysis as part of our ADUO review process.

"With the release of the findings of period 2, we are confident that, based on the quality of the data, its analysis is incredibly robust, giving us a high level of confidence in our findings.

"We also have to respect the confidentiality and intellectual property of the teams and their Power Unit Manufacturers in disseminating any details from the findings.

“This is the first year of ADUO so naturally there are areas which we may evolve over time, in discussion with all the PU Manufacturers.”

The third ADUO review period of 2026 will cover races 12-18 of the 2026 season (Netherlands to Mexico City).

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Written by

Simmey Hannifin Donaldson - F1 Editor

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