ADUO will undoubtedly be one of the major technical talking points of the Monza weekend. While Ferrari must wait for the track to determine the effectiveness of its latest development opportunity, centred on a revised turbocharger, Red Bull already knows its fate: Red Bull Powertrains Ford will receive no additional development or upgrade opportunities in 2026.
That outcome was partly expected and was effectively confirmed by the FIA announcement published last week. More importantly, however, the consequences could become considerably more significant when Formula 1 reaches 2027. The real disadvantage for Red Bull may not be the absence of another in-season homologation opportunity, but the additional budget and power-unit dyno hours being accumulated by its rivals.
The biggest ADUO advantage is not necessarily the engine upgrades
A few days ago, the FIA issued a brief statement announcing the results of the first two ADUO measurement periods, covering Melbourne to Montreal and Monaco to Budapest respectively.
There were no surprises. As first reported by AutoRacer during the Monaco weekend, Red Bull Powertrains Ford emerged with the strongest-performing V6 internal combustion engine, followed by Mercedes, which was between 2% and 4% behind. Ferrari, Audi and Honda were all more than 4% adrift.
The assessment is important because ADUO measures the performance of the internal combustion engine rather than the complete hybrid power unit. That distinction helps explain why Red Bull’s power unit may not necessarily be the overall benchmark despite its strong ICE, with electrical deployment and the other elements of the system also contributing significantly to total performance.
The now-familiar consequence is that Mercedes has one additional homologation available in 2026 and another in 2027, while the other three manufacturers that qualified for ADUO receive twice as many opportunities: two during 2026 and two during 2027.
To avoid any misunderstanding, a new power-unit homologation means that a manufacturer can submit an updated homologation dossier to the FIA. Within that dossier, the design of almost every permitted power-unit component can potentially be altered without a fixed numerical limit on the number of individual modifications.
From the crankshaft and valves to the turbocharger and plenum, together with elements such as the MGU-K or battery, ADUO can in principle allow a manufacturer to arrive at one race with a dramatically revised power unit compared with the previous specification.
In practice, of course, completely transforming a power unit between races would be virtually impossible. Manufacturers must operate within a Power Unit Cost Cap, while the design, validation and production times associated with a racing engine are considerably longer than those involved in producing aerodynamic components.
That is why the ADUO system also provides manufacturers that qualify for concessions with extra test-bench running and additional financial headroom under the cost cap.
Until this point, the focus has been on the best-known aspect of ADUO: the physical upgrades themselves, such as Ferrari’s revised power-unit specification for Monza.
Why Red Bull cannot receive an ADUO homologation opportunity later in 2026
The FIA statement concerning the second assessment period concentrated on additional homologation opportunities and confirmed that no new ones had been granted compared with the first review.
The immediate assumption might therefore be that nothing changed in the ADUO picture between Monaco and Budapest. In reality, the situation is considerably more complicated.
Firstly, once a manufacturer receives its additional homologation opportunities following the first assessment period in year N – 2026 in this case – it cannot simply accumulate more homologation opportunities through subsequent assessments in the same season. Mercedes, Ferrari, Audi and Honda were therefore unable to receive additional homologation allowances regardless of their positions during the Monaco-to-Budapest assessment.
Secondly, it was extremely unlikely that Red Bull would qualify for homologation concessions during the second period. Up to Monaco, the RBPT-Ford V6 had been at least 2% stronger than Mercedes’ internal combustion engine according to the ADUO assessment.
For that situation to have reversed across the average measurements taken between Monaco and the Hungaroring, Mercedes would effectively have needed to become at least 2% stronger than RBPT-Ford.
In other words, there would have needed to be a swing of approximately four percentage points despite Mercedes introducing no corresponding engine performance upgrade.
Such a scenario would only have been realistic if Mercedes had deliberately disguised its performance during the opening assessment period – something that could have triggered extremely serious FIA action – or if RBPT-Ford had intentionally sacrificed at least 30 hp for six races. Such behaviour would also have been detectable by the FIA and would therefore have served little purpose.
The unusual situation reflects how successfully Red Bull has executed its first in-house Formula 1 engine project. Expectations surrounding the new operation were initially cautious, but the competitiveness of the Red Bull-Ford power unit became apparent early in 2026.
With that possibility effectively ruled out, RBPT-Ford has now failed to qualify for ADUO benefits through the first two assessment periods. Under the rules, a manufacturer that has not been granted ADUO after those opening periods cannot become eligible through the final assessment period either.
The regulation exists to prevent a dominant manufacturer, potentially with the championship already effectively secured, from deliberately sacrificing performance late in the season in an attempt to obtain concessions for future development. The final races of the campaign are not included in the ADUO assessment for the same reason.
For Red Bull, that mechanism has now created an ironic situation. Missing out on extra homologation opportunities may appear significant, but for the new manufacturer it is arguably not the most damaging consequence.
ADUO gives rivals major extra budget and dyno time
The greater concern lies in the additional test-bench running and cost-cap allowances available to manufacturers that qualify for ADUO.
Unlike the additional homologation opportunities, these operational and financial concessions are calculated at the end of each assessment period and can accumulate. The numbers illustrate why the difference matters so much.
The annual Power Unit Cost Cap is $190 million. A manufacturer whose ICE falls between 2% and 4% behind the reference receives an additional $3 million of financial allowance for each assessment period in that band, equivalent to roughly 1.5% of the standard cap.
A deficit between 4% and 6% brings an allowance of $4.65 million, while a manufacturer between 6% and 8% behind receives $6.35 million, with the figures increasing further as the deficit grows.
That means that if Mercedes remained more than 2% behind RBPT-Ford across all three assessment periods, it could accumulate $9 million in additional development allowance to allocate between 2026 and 2027 – approximately 4.5% of the standard annual cost cap.
Ferrari provides an even more striking example. If it began in the 6–8% bracket, moved through the intermediate band following its first ADUO development and then finished the third assessment period between 2% and 4% behind, it would accumulate approximately $14 million in additional development allowance, equivalent to around 7.4% of the $190 million cap.
The significance of those concessions helps explain why the FIA’s ADUO rankings have become such an important part of the 2026 power-unit battle.
Ferrari could gain hundreds of additional dyno hours
The additional dyno allocation follows a similar principle, but the potential gains are substantially larger in percentage terms.
Power-unit manufacturers have 710 restricted ICE operation hours available on the test bench during 2026, with the base allowance changing for 2027.
A manufacturer within the 2–4% ADUO band receives another 70 operation hours at the end of each assessment period in which it meets that criterion. That represents close to 10% of the standard 2026 allocation for a single assessment period, and the additional hours are cumulative.
The allowance increases to 110 hours for a 4–6% deficit and 150 hours for a manufacturer between 6% and 8% behind.
Using the Mercedes and Ferrari examples above, Mercedes could therefore finish the final assessment period with 210 additional dyno hours if it remained in the 2–4% category throughout all three periods. That corresponds to roughly 29.5% of the standard 710-hour allocation available in 2026 – running that Red Bull would not receive.
Ferrari, under the hypothetical progression described above, could accumulate an enormous 330 additional hours: 150 from the 6–8% category, 110 from the 4–6% bracket and 70 from the 2–4% range. That would correspond to approximately 46.5% of the normal 2026 test-bench allocation.
Those figures make it easier to understand the frustration within Red Bull and RBPT-Ford. The new manufacturer has produced an impressive internal combustion engine, while some of Red Bull’s broader 2026 performance difficulties have come from areas other than the power unit. Yet its strong ICE assessment means its competitors can receive substantially greater development resources.
Why the ADUO disadvantage could become even bigger in 2027
The 2027 power-unit regulations will not represent another complete revolution, but they will still change in several important areas. The internal combustion engine will need to cope with and exploit the higher fuel-flow characteristics, while the MGU-K will be required to reach a different maximum power level during energy recovery and the battery will need greater capacity.
That makes development resources particularly valuable. While Red Bull’s rivals will have additional homologation opportunities allowing them to modify a broad range of power-unit elements, RBPT-Ford will face a considerably more restrictive development position and will have to work with fewer financial and dyno resources.
This matters even more because Red Bull is still at the beginning of its life as a Formula 1 power-unit manufacturer. The scale of the project was always enormous, with the team previously describing the Red Bull Powertrains-Ford programme as one of its biggest technical challenges.
The true advantage of ADUO, therefore, is not simply the ability to introduce small or large upgrades during the current season. When a manufacturer can potentially gain almost 50% more ICE dyno operation time and more than $10 million in additional financial allowance, the benefits can shape the following year’s development programme.
Honda provides another illustration of how those resources can be used strategically. Rather than treating ADUO solely as a way of producing an immediate performance upgrade, manufacturers can use the extra budget and testing freedom as part of a longer-term development programme, as seen with Honda’s wider ADUO recovery strategy with Aston Martin.
That also explains why Ferrari is targeting a substantial power-unit evolution for 2027 and has already spent months focusing resources on the next version of its project. The additional testing opportunities give Maranello considerably more freedom to validate changes before the new season.
Red Bull simply cannot pursue an equivalent strategy with the same level of resources. Ironically, that is a consequence of doing a very good job with its new V6 – not necessarily producing the best complete power unit on the grid, but delivering an ICE strong enough to sit outside the ADUO thresholds.
The question is therefore becoming increasingly relevant: if a manufacturer can perform well enough in one specific element of the power unit to miss the concessions, while still facing weaknesses elsewhere in the overall hybrid system, will the current ADUO measurement method eventually need to change?
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