Max Verstappen didn’t sound like a driver basking in flattering numbers when the FIA’s latest power unit benchmarking filtered through the paddock. If anything, Red Bull’s world champion came across mildly irritated by it — not because the team had been rated highly, but because the conclusion didn’t match what Red Bull believes it’s living day-to-day.
Under the FIA’s Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) system, Red Bull has been assessed as the leading internal combustion engine package on the grid. The FIA hasn’t published an official “best engine” table, but the ADUO evaluation in circulation places Red Bull at the front, with Mercedes more than two percent back on the ICE-only metric. Ferrari, Audi and Honda are said to be more than four percent down, which would open the door to two upgrades under the framework.
On paper, it’s a tidy little twist. Mercedes cars have won every race so far this season, so the lazy assumption would be that Brackley’s power unit must be the class of the field. The ADUO numbers tell a different story — and Verstappen admits Red Bull didn’t see this coming either.
“I think we were all a little bit surprised with that news,” Verstappen said in Barcelona. “I guess that’s why we were talking to the FIA now to see what happened there. How they came to that conclusion.
“I’m not involved in this day-to-day, so I think it’s better if you ask someone else how accurate it actually is, the measurements for us. I’m just surprised what came out. All I focus on is driving.”
That last line was vintage Verstappen: a not-so-subtle reminder that he’s got plenty to think about without becoming a part-time auditor. But his comments also hint at something more interesting than a simple “nice problem to have”. Red Bull isn’t treating the ADUO outcome as a trophy; it’s treating it as a datapoint that doesn’t quite correlate with its own internal picture.
And that matters, because ADUO isn’t paddock trivia — it’s a mechanism that shapes who gets to develop what, and when. If the sport’s regulator has you pegged as the benchmark, it potentially shifts the development landscape around you. Rivals who are classed as further back get more latitude to close the gap, while the “leaders” inevitably face a narrower path. In that context, being labelled best isn’t purely a compliment. It can also be a strategic constraint.
There’s also a key nuance buried inside the reported figures: the ranking is said to be based only on the ICE component. That doesn’t mean it’s irrelevant — far from it — but it does underline why a team can dominate Sundays without necessarily topping this specific metric. A complete power unit package is an ecosystem, and this particular evaluation doesn’t claim to capture the full picture.
Verstappen, for his part, didn’t deny Red Bull’s new-era project has teeth. He just pushed back on the idea that the team feels like it’s standing on the summit.
“From the outside you should say ‘yes that’s amazing’ but we just feel surprised because we don’t feel like we are the best,” he said. “Of course, it’s super impressive what they have done. If you look at it, we were definitely not the worst out there, and it’s super impressive, because in such a short timeframe, what they have done.
“We still have some reliability things, but overall, it’s honestly nice to be a part of it, and seeing the drive of the people, and what they want to do.
“They’re never satisfied, I’m also never satisfied, but they are as well, and they’re equally as disappointed when things don’t go right.
“So, yes, in a way, of course, we are proud, just a bit confused with somebody being portrayed as the best, because we don’t feel like that.”
If the assessment is accurate, it’s an eyebrow-raiser for more than one reason. Red Bull Ford Powertrains is a new supplier in this era, and for it to be viewed — even in a narrow measurement — as the front-runner would be a serious statement about its baseline performance and its development trajectory.
Yet Verstappen’s “proud but confused” tone is telling. Teams don’t typically complain about being called best unless there’s a tangible knock-on effect, or unless the label doesn’t match the problems they’re still wrestling with. He referenced reliability directly, which is often the detail that gets lost when rankings are boiled down to percentages and headlines.
The other piece here is political, even if nobody will say the quiet part out loud: if Red Bull genuinely believes the FIA’s methodology has mischaracterised where it sits, it has every incentive to get clarity. ADUO exists to manage convergence and spending in a tightly regulated environment. A misread, or even a misunderstanding of how the numbers were derived, is something a team would want corrected quickly — not for bragging rights, but for development flexibility.
For now, Verstappen is doing what he always does when a bigger organisational debate starts swirling around his weekend: parking it. Red Bull will ask its questions, the FIA will point to its process, and the paddock will keep squinting at the gap between “Mercedes has won everything” and “Red Bull has the best ICE.”
In 2026, that gap is where the real story usually lives.
