The build-up to the Spanish Grand Prix has ignited on the political and technical front regarding power units. During Friday’s official press conference, Mattia Binotto (Audi), Toto Wolff (Mercedes), and Ayao Komatsu (Haas, representing Ferrari’s customer teams) dissected the profound impact of the ADUO (Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities) system. The performance hierarchy recently compiled by the FIA has thoroughly shaken the paddock, completely reshaping medium and long-term development roadmaps ahead of the upcoming seasons.
Mattia Binotto: “Significant advantage for Audi, but benefits will be seen in the long term”
The head of the Audi F1 project made no secret of the immense value of this regulatory lifeline, though he preached absolute realism regarding the timeline required to bridge the gap to the frontrunners: “For Audi it will be a significant advantage, and it is exactly what we expected,” Binotto opened. “Right from the start of the season, we knew that the majority of our deficit to the top teams lay on the power unit front.”
However, the former Ferrari team principal quickly tempered expectations regarding any immediate impacts from the ADUO framework: “We have our plans, but the benefits will not arrive in the short term. People often believe that once you secure the ADUO, you can immediately introduce an extra 10 kilowatts at the very next race. It will not work like that. In our case, we are aiming for a major development push, but one that is oriented toward the medium and long term. ADUO means having a larger budget cap allowance, more dyno hours, and greater development freedom. A power unit requires much longer design leads compared to chassis components. Ours is a long journey and we have set a clear target for 2030; we will not see immediate benefits, but in the long run, it will certainly be fundamental.”
Toto Wolff: “A new homologation saves us from the risk of being leapfrogged”
Over in the Mercedes camp, Toto Wolff approached the surprise classification with a healthy dose of irony, revealing a behind-the-scenes anecdote involving his relationship with Alpine, who recently transitioned to Brixworth horsepower: “The first thing I can tell you is that Flavio Briatore called me saying that the agreement was to buy the strongest engine of the lot, and he discovered that instead it isn’t! What can I say?” the Mercedes Team Principal joked.
While Wolff naturally welcomed the surprise inclusion of the Mercedes power unit among those permitted additional development tokens, he added a cautious technical caveat: “We are in a different situation compared to Audi, but a new homologation is definitely helpful. If you don’t get this opportunity, there is a concrete risk of being leapfrogged by someone else who has the chance to develop. We proposed several different ideas in the past, but we will see how the situation evolves over the coming period. We must not forget that this is not a frozen situation; the ADUO grid will be examined and evaluated every few races.”
Ayao Komatsu: “As Ferrari customers, we are thrilled with the double ADUO step”
The crucial perspective of customer teams, who benefit indirectly from the engineering breakthroughs of factory manufacturers, was outlined by Haas Team Principal Ayao Komatsu, who is eager to harvest the fruits of Maranello’s upcoming technical evolution: “Obviously our situation, not being an engine manufacturer, is different compared to Audi and Mercedes,” Komatsu explained. “However, as users of the Ferrari power unit, we are truly happy to have secured these two steps of ADUO. They will give us a substantial boost.”
For a customer operation, the tangible rewards of the ADUO system are explicitly tied to the factory’s engineering pace: “Beyond this aspect, we continue to push every single day to find greater performance on the chassis side,” Komatsu added. “We work very closely with Ferrari in an extremely collaborative manner. As soon as these upgrades become available, we will be ready to understand them thoroughly to exploit them to the maximum and in the shortest time possible.”
The technical focus: Everything hinges on raw internal combustion power (ICE)
When pressed on the precise technical direction their initial development tokens would take, the three team principals unanimously confirmed that the governing body’s spotlight is trained solely on the internal combustion engine: “The ADUO is based on the evaluation of pure thermal engine power, and the measured delta is relative only to that,” Binotto clarified. “It does not look at the entire power unit, energy management, or the efficiency of the electrical systems.”
Binotto then expanded on the engineering focus: “If it is determined that you are behind in terms of horsepower, the first area you must focus on is the pure power of the ICE. This is exactly where we find ourselves as Audi, and it is linked to the efficiency of the combustion chamber. There is not an absolute goldmine to be found there, but we know it does not represent the entirety of power unit performance, as the efficiency of the batteries, inverters, and turbo sizing also heavily influence drivability. But the ADUO evaluates the gap on pure kilowatts, and that is where we are concentrating our greatest efforts.”
Toto Wolff operated on the exact same wavelength: “It’s a pretty simple analysis: you see how much push you have from the ICE, and finding ourselves behind represents a challenge for us. Did we get something wrong? Did we fail to optimize it properly on the thermal side? How can we do better? I’m certainly not blushing about it.” Komatsu added the chassis-side outlook: “We trust Ferrari blindly and we are certain they will deliver an excellent upgrade on the ICE. This progress will have an impact on the way we manage our energy and trackside deployment, even if the electrical side is not being directly modified. We just need to make sure we are ready to use it perfectly from the word go; I can’t wait.”
The political debate: The Red Bull benchmark and the ghost of “BoP”
The definitive ranking that emerged from Monaco, which crowned the Red Bull-Ford power unit as the absolute performance benchmark, has raised eyebrows regarding the ultimate accuracy of the FIA’s measurement tools. While Wolff considers the data unassailable, Mattia Binotto proposed an alternative framework for the future: “The data was measured and collected directly by Nikolas Tombazis,” Wolff cut short. “There is no political background, no favoritism. It is the pure result of their analysis carried out via the torque sensors installed on the cars; that is the reality.”
Conversely, Binotto left the door open for a structural overhaul of the system down the line: “There are no doubts regarding the FIA’s measurements; we have adequate sensors to quantify the power delta. Whether the principle of the ADUO based strictly on kilowatts is the best approach, however, can be debated. A similar system exists for the chassis linked to wind tunnel hours based on the standings, which forces the field to close up. Perhaps for the power unit, we should do something similar, basing it on the constructors’ standings of previous seasons. If the goal is performance convergence to have a closer field, this would be the most linear method, creating a single regulatory framework between chassis and engines. But today the rules are written this way and we must trust the FIA. In the future, we will evaluate whether to establish a different ranking methodology.”
In closing, Wolff delivered a stern warning against the risk of the system morphing into a masked form of Balance of Performance (BoP): “ADUO was born as a protection mechanism to prevent a repeat of the 2014 situation, when a single manufacturer [Mercedes] secured such an advantage that they ran away undisturbed with miles of testing and results. That time we were on the right side of the fence, but it is a scenario we wanted to avoid for the good of the sport, especially with the entry of new manufacturers like Audi, Honda with Aston Martin, and Red Bull themselves. This is the purpose and so it must remain.”
The Mercedes chief concluded with an uncompromising stance: “I get hives just hearing the word BoP; it is something that F1 must stay far, far away from. It is a political mess that ruins other series, scares away manufacturers, and I experienced it very closely in DTM, in the GT categories, and at Le Mans. We must never give in to the temptation of sitting around a table to decide how performance should be balanced. If a fine-tuning mechanism exists simply to ensure that no engine manufacturer is left embarrassed, then that is the right path. But aerodynamic management was invented for a completely different scenario.”
In summary, the intense paddock debate surrounding the FIA’s ADUO engine rankings highlights the high-stakes political tightrope Formula 1 is walking as it balances technical convergence with pure sporting merit. While Mercedes and Audi look to capitalize on their newly granted development freedoms to optimize their internal combustion units ahead of future campaigns, Toto Wolff’s fierce resistance to anything resembling Balance of Performance underscores a collective desire to maintain F1’s historic identity as an uncompromising engineering meritocracy. As the governing body continuously reviews these power metrics over the coming races, the ability of teams like Ferrari and Audi to efficiently translate these testing freedoms into trackside reliability and straight-line speed will remain a critical storyline defining the competitive order up to 2030.
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