Why F1's engine-upgrade picture is becoming ever more ludicrous

Formula 1’s Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) framework is testing the patience and mental bandwidth of many – not least those benighted TV presenters who commit the elementary blunder of uttering the acronym on screen. The pained looks that pass across their faces as the producer immediately screams in their ear for an explanation is typically followed by word salad: “The ah… uh… additional engine er… upgrade… thing…”

We’ve recently passed through the first threshold for ranking F1’s power units according to the secret methodology of the ah-uh-additional-engine-er-upgrade-thing, and the results have been predictably farcical. To hear the manufacturers speak on the matter, everybody’s power unit is terrible, but some are more terrible than others.

Although ADUO unlocks more budgetary headroom and dyno time for manufacturers deemed to be underperforming relative to the best, and permits upgrades to be applied to areas that would otherwise be frozen until 2027, two manufacturers already had bullets in the chamber, as it were. This came as a surprise to those who assumed there would be a lead time – that no developments would be forthcoming until after the additional money and research resource had been unlocked.

Given that the concessions increase the less competitive an engine is, nobody wants to be Top of the Pops when ADUO rolls around. So, naturally, both Ferrari and Audi, the first teams to introduce developments, were at pains to emphasise during the Austrian GP weekend how dire their situation remains.

“We don't expect magic bullets unfortunately,” said Leclerc of Ferrari’s upgrade, a revised casting material that enables the internal combustion unit to run at higher temperatures. “There has been a massive amount of work in the background to make sure the upgraded engine was ready for now.

“We kind of expected to be on the ADUO looking at the trace we had. So we obviously made sure that we were ready for that first race to put it straight on the car. It's not a revolution, but it's a step in the right direction and that really shows the mentality of the team of trying to put everything together and really pushing the limits of the development to make sure that we don't leave anything behind.”

Ferrari has been one of the many manufacturers at pains to say how bad its engine is

Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images

Ferrari’s power unit technical director Enrico Gualtieri described the update as “relatively minor”. The next step is understood to be a new turbo compressor, the same dimensions as the current one but with revised turbine geometry.

Leclerc’s pronouncements followed the theme of the first few rounds, where almost no driver or team representative missed an opportunity to bring up the subject of how uncompetitive their engine was. In terms of the mood music, this doesn’t even represent a key change.

Gabriel Bortoleto qualified 12th at the Red Bull Ring and afterwards, almost unprompted, struck up the refrain of woe and despondency.

“I don't think I could have done much more with that,” he said. “I need to thank the team, both Hinwil and Neuburg [an der Donau, where the Audi power unit is built], even the people from the factory trying to maximise the engine that we had on track, and trying to optimise all the energy deployment through the lap. Because we knew we struggled, and it has been a struggle the whole weekend, but the good thing and the thing that makes me optimistic is that the car is in a good window, we brought an upgrade that worked very well.”

The ADUO framework enables manufacturers to spend their development ‘tokens’ on electrical components as well as the internal combustion engine, so it’s entirely possible to focus on extracting performance gains from the hybrid system – thereby locking Red Bull in place, unable to do even that. No wonder Mattia Binotto and Toto Wolff giggled like a pair of naughty schoolboys

Perhaps realising that he had veered off-message, he took advantage of a follow-up question about the engine to correct the slide.

“I think if we had the same top speed as Mercedes or Red Bull, we would have been fighting for top three, easy,” he said. “I think you guys have access to GPS data, so you can compare the corners in Q2 and we are very quick in basically all the corners, we missed a lot in the straights. Don't get me wrong, we still need to improve our car, but I think we have been doing it, and I think we could easily be fighting there – we lose massively on the straights, unfortunately, but that's the reality right now.”

Even more absurd than the spectacle of drivers falling over themselves to heap unnecessary ordure on their engines are the political games surrounding who occupies the top spot. Red Bull was so furious about being ranked top that it demanded a recount – and its position in the charts remains such a bone of contention that team principal Laurent Mekies was visibly relieved, during the FIA press conference on Friday, whenever he was asked about Max Verstappen’s prospects of sticking with Red Bull.

Red Bull has been placed at the top of the ADUO list meaning it cannot upgrade its power unit

Photo by: Clive Mason / Getty Images

The alternative was a seemingly endless series of questions probing his reaction to essentially being ‘played’ by rival manufacturers, and the prospect of Red Bull-Ford Powertrains in effect being locked in the top spot by rivals’ machinations.

It’s understood that when the ADUO rubric was up for discussion, the FIA placed on the table various options by which the measurements could be more sophisticated and take into account a broader range of parameters. Red Bull was among the loudest campaigners for limiting its scope to the internal combustion engine only.

Word in the paddock is that Red Bull was confident its chassis would be best in class, less so about its power unit. Whereas the reality is that the RB22 is lagging in many areas, and the occupant of the engine bay is among the least of the team’s worries.

Given that the ADUO framework enables manufacturers to spend their development ‘tokens’ on electrical components as well as the internal combustion engine, it’s entirely possible to focus on extracting performance gains from the hybrid system – thereby locking Red Bull in place, unable to do even that. No wonder Audi's Mattia Binotto and Toto Wolff from Mercedes giggled like a pair of naughty schoolboys when the question came up during their most recent appearance in an FIA press conference.

Honda has said it will do some work on its ICE this season, focusing on improved combustion and reduced frictional losses, but then it will pivot to developing in other areas for next season. Although the FIA hasn’t published exact figures, it’s understood that Honda’s internal combustion engine isn’t quite the basket case it has been made out to be, and doesn’t qualify for the extra measures granted to ICEs 10% or more off the benchmark.

Audi continues to maintain that it will focus on reliability rather than performance on the ICE side. Mercedes has been cagey but it’s understood that it will work on the electrical system, despite Red Bull’s best efforts to ensure that the ADUO recount slashed Mercedes’ room for manoeuvre.

Both Audi and Honda will use ADUO to make updates, but nobody wants to overtake Red Bull in the V6 power stakes

Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images

So, expect the brickbats to continue to fly even as the months tick by to the next ah-uh-additional-engine-er-upgrade-thing threshold. And as the plans for the post-2030 engine formula come together, the ridiculousness will only increase: for here the topic of road-relevance for marketing purposes will be debated against the background noise of manufacturers routinely trashing their own product.

Meanwhile Wolff – pretty much the only manufacturer figure not denigrating his engines – will be waltzing away to the 2026 championship, pausing only to reflect wistfully on how much more delicious it would have been if his old nemesis Christian Horner had still been at the helm of Red Bull while he held its feet to the flame.

Mercedes is the biggest winner out of the ADUO saga

Photo by: Clive Mason/Getty Images