Red Bull seeks FIA answers after surprise ADUO benchmark verdict

Red Bull is seeking answers from the FIA after being unexpectedly identified as Formula 1’s benchmark engine manufacturer in the governing body’s ADUO findings.

The results of the FIA’s analysis and indexing of the five power unit manufacturers was communicated to each on the Sunday morning of the Monaco Grand Prix but, five days later, those findings are yet to be officially communicated to the public by the governing body.

Red Bull questions FIA ADUO findings

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• The FIA’s ADUO assessment identified Red Bull Powertrains, not Mercedes, as Formula 1’s benchmark internal combustion engine.
• Red Bull has been left surprised by the findings and is seeking clarification from the FIA on the methodology used to reach its conclusion.
• Despite ongoing discussions, the FIA document communicated to manufacturers appears final, suggesting any review is focused on verification rather than changing the results.

As reported by PlanetF1.com last Sunday evening, the long-awaited findings of the FIA’s painstaking work into indexing the performance levels of each power unit manufacturer’s [PUM] internal combustion engine had been communicated to all five earlier that day.

Known as the Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities [ADUO] system, this safety net, introduced by the FIA, has been put in place to allow PUMs that are a certain percentage behind the best engine to open homologation and introduce more updates.

For PUMs more than 2 per cent behind the FIA’s best-performing engine, one such upgrade is permitted while, for those more than 4 per cent behind the standard-setter, two such homologation upgrades are permitted.

To the surprise of many in the paddock, the benchmark was not, as anticipated, the unit in the back of the dominant Mercedes cars – the car that, at the time of writing, has won all the races so far this year – but rather the Red Bull Powertrains engine powering the eponymous team and sister squad, Racing Bulls.

The one-page document does not detail figures or findings, it simply prescribes how many upgrades each PUM has been awarded, allowing for deduction of the percentage ranges each power unit has been assessed into. My precise data that explain the findings in more intricate detail is understood to be related to IP concerns.

But, so surprising was the news that it’s even stunned the Milton Keynes-based manufacturer. While it anticipated being close to the top, there was never any belief that it was actually ahead of Mercedes.

It’s for this reason that the discussions continue about the FIA’s benchmarking, with the governing body engaging with all the teams and PUMs through the process. Feedback is being taken on board from Red Bull as the situation is reviewed.

It’s understood that these discussions focus mainly on Red Bull essentially asking the FIA to ‘show their work’, ie. the methodologies and data that has resulted in it’s power unit, and not Mercedes, benchmarking as the standard setter.

“I think we were all a little bit surprised with that news,” Max Verstappen said on Thursday afternoon.

“I guess that’s why we were talking to the FIA now, to see what happened there, how they came to that conclusion, I guess.”

Speaking on the record on Thursday, Honda’s Shintaro Orihara said, in his eyes, the FIA’s figures on the ADUO assessment appeared accurate with what the Japanese manufacturer had anticipated.

“Similar, so I think RBPT did a great job,” he said, when asked whether the FIA conclusions matched Honda’s.

“I respect what they have done. The number we received from the FIA is quite fair.”

With Red Bull in the unusual position of being able to take immense pride that its combustion engine has been found to be the standard setter, it simultaneously is aghast at the situation that, in its attempts to catch up on the fastest package, the Mercedes, it is the Brixworth-based manufacturer that looks set to have an opportunity to even extend its perceived performance advantage by way of a homologation upgrade.

For Mercedes, there can only be satisfaction: Monaco proved its current advantage is not only PU-related but also enjoys a superb chassis, but sources have indicated that it’s likely the overall power unit is, at least, on par with Red Bull’s, if not actually ahead – a commonly held opinion throughout the grid.

It’s in the electrical half of the power unit that Mercedes makes up the slight deficit in the combustion engines, but this is irrelevant for the purposes of ADUO. The performance indexing carried out by the FIA focused solely on the ICE, as was agreed amongst all five PUMs with the governing body.

“In spring of 2025, we had quite long discussions with them [the PUMs],” the FIA’s single-seater director, Nikolas Tombazis, told select media, including PlanetF1.com, in April.

“We offered whether we wanted to consider certain things like the turbo pressures, or the turbo diameters, or the plenum temperature, for example.

“The universal position by the PU manufacturers back then was that we should keep it simple, so the fact that it is the current horsepower measurement of the internal combustion has been appreciated right from the start.

“I would be personally quite open to the idea of complicating the parameter bit. But that discussion was had back more than a year ago, and it was quite clear what it concluded.

“We did offer to put them in a slightly more complicated equation, and they were not keen to do that.”

It would thus appear that, while the FIA engages with Red Bull to clarify the situation before any official communication to the public, Red Bull’s argument doesn’t have much teeth: the parameters of the ADUO focused on the area of the power unit that RBPT nailed, much to its own chagrin.

Added to that, a manufacturer awarded an ADUO upgrade is also allowed to introduce upgrades on the electrical side; it is not restricted to only the ICE, despite only the ICE being used for measurement purposes.

There were some paddock whispers on Thursday that, so annoyed by the findings were Red Bull, that it had even been the sole hold-out in the voting on the proposed PU ratio changes being introduced for 2027, perhaps anticipating that the FIA would not be able to achieve the required supermajority that would allow for the ratio change to be made in the regulations if another PUM – perhaps Audi or Ferrari – had also voted against.

However, it’s understood that it was Honda, not RBPT, that was the sole vote against the ratio changes. Red Bull may want clarification from the FIA regarding its findings on the ADUO, but it was fully in favour of the ratio change, which tallies with the desires of Verstappen to remain interested in Formula 1, and, on Thursday evening, FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem posted a photo of himself posing with Red Bull CEO Oliver Mintzlaff after meeting with him in Paris earlier in the day.

With Red Bull seeking answers to its own questions, there’s no clear indication yet as to when the ADUO findings will be officially communicated. The FIA document that emerged last Sunday satisfied the regulatory requirement for the findings to be made known to the PUMs but, for the general public, there is no such deadline.

What is clear, however, is that the wording of the FIA document sent to the PUMs is rather final: there is no wiggle room left by way of words such as ‘provisional’ or ‘preliminary’, with the governing body merely stating that the listed PUMs are “entitled to the following..”

The logical conclusion is thus that the review being carried out is merely for verification purposes, rather than with any eye to an overhaul of the findings.

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