Red Bull seeking FIA talks about ADUO situation

Red Bull is seeking a “conversation” with the FIA to determine how it was allegedly deemed to have the strongest engine in the F1 field.

As part of the new regulations introduced in 2026, the ADUO (Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities) system offers engine manufacturers a chance to catch up if they are deemed behind in the pecking order.

The first evaluation period came to an end after round five, and although the FIA has not yet publicly confirmed its findings, some drivers and senior team members outlined that Red Bull's internal combustion engine was deemed the most competitive.

The FIA already confirmed that a review of ADUO is ongoing as they want to be as precise as possible with its measurements, which is why no such decision has yet been made public.

But should the alleged decision stand, Red Bull would be unable to apply an upgrade to the engine this year, while its rivals will be allowed to do so after avoiding the benchmark status.

However, Red Bull has questioned the authenticity of the findings, having failed to see in its own data readings where it could hold the advantage.

“We are completely okay with the fact that the rule states that you should only try to estimate the pecking order of the ICE power,” Mekies told media including RacingNews365.

“We are completely okay with that, we have all agreed to that, and we don't think that is the issue.

“Where we certainly would like to have a deeper conversation is because we do not see one single data sample that indicates that we would have an advantage over our friends at Mercedes.”

Mekies pointed to Red Bull's form at power-sensitive tracks this year as an argument against the FIA's findings.

“You will 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.

“Especially when you get relative performance variations from track layout to track layout that are perfectly consistent with ICE power sensitivity.

“So you go to Canada, high ICE power sensitivity, we qualified sixth. You go to Monaco, low ICE power sensitivity, we qualify pretty much around four hundrethds from pole. 

“You go to Barcelona, high again ICE power sensitivity, you qualify sixth again. 

“We do not see one single data sample where we estimate ourselves higher than the competition, let alone being consistently above them.”