Formula 1’s new ADUO mechanism was sold as a safety valve — a way to stop the 2026 power unit reset from turning into a multi-year mismatch. Barely a handful of races into the new era, it’s already doing something else as well: dragging team bosses into a political minefield they’d rather tiptoe around.
Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies, asked in Canada about the paddock’s growing noise over who’s sandbagging and who’s genuinely struggling, wasn’t interested in playing along. The FIA is currently crunching the first batch of data and, with the rules now in motion, everybody knows the first ADUO call will set the tone for how aggressive manufacturers get with the grey areas of “performance” versus “evidence”.
“So, now you’re asking us to enter into the game?” Mekies shot back when the subject of gamesmanship came up. The point he was making was obvious: once you start publicly arguing over who’s running what mode, you’re basically inviting the same scrutiny back at your own garage.
ADUO — Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities — is the new concession system designed to prevent massive ICE deficits between the five power unit manufacturers. Across set windows each season from 2026 to 2030, the FIA creates an ‘ICE Performance Index’ and measures everyone against the best-performing engine. Drop 2 per cent or more behind, and you qualify for extra homologation opportunities: one additional upgrade if you’re 2–4 per cent down, two if you’re more than 4 per cent adrift.
The first evaluation period has now closed, with Canada marking the final round before the FIA sits down to assess the numbers. The governing body has said the outcome will be communicated within two weeks of the Montreal race.
That timeline matters, because this isn’t a theoretical debate anymore. This is about whether any manufacturer gets a chance to move its hardware sooner than planned — and whether the rest of the grid accepts the verdict without crying foul.
On the competitive picture itself, Mekies was blunt enough, even if he refused to be drawn into specifics. In his view, Mercedes has started 2026 with the clear power unit advantage — and the scale of that advantage is amplified by how many cars it touches.
“Today we think the pecking order is Mercedes, in terms of the powertrain, ahead of the field,” he said. “And that means eight cars, so it is very significant.”
Behind Mercedes, Mekies described a chasing pack containing Red Bull Ford Powertrains, Ferrari and Audi — but he wouldn’t put hard numbers on it, acknowledging that doing so would instantly become part of the same paddock chess match he’s trying to avoid. Even so, he conceded there’s “a consistent gap” to the Mercedes-powered runners.
There was also a notable note of pride in what Red Bull’s engine project has achieved just to get onto the grid in a credible place. Mekies framed it as a rapid climb from effectively being “a field behind” only a few years ago — a reminder, perhaps, that Red Bull didn’t enter 2026 expecting perfection on day one, but it did expect to be in the conversation.
Where Mekies aligned with Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was on the outlier at the back. Wolff has already suggested that only one manufacturer is really in trouble and said he’d be “disappointed” if ADUO ended up reshuffling the order. Mekies, asked about where Honda sits, didn’t dance around it.
“It’s probably fair to say that we read Honda further back,” he admitted.
That, in turn, is where ADUO’s promise gets messy. Because even if the system is meant to stop a supplier being marooned, the moment it delivers meaningful help — help that can be turned into lap time — the manufacturers who nailed the regulations first will argue they’re being punished for competence. And the manufacturers asking for help will insist it’s simply the rules working as intended.
The other complication is the calendar itself. The FIA explained that Article 4.2 of Appendix C5 split the season into three ICE analysis periods covering races 1–6, 7–12 and 13–18, but that the first window was disrupted by “ongoing events in the Middle East”. As a result, the opening period was adjusted to cover only the first five races: Australia, China, Japan, Miami and Canada.
In practical terms, that means the first ADUO judgement is being formed from a slightly altered sample — and from the early phase of a new rule set when teams are still learning what they’ve built. It’s exactly the kind of context rival camps will use to either bolster their case or undermine someone else’s.
What Mekies’ comments really underline is that, even when everyone agrees on the broad picture — Mercedes ahead, a cluster behind, Honda struggling — nobody wants to be the one to put a megaphone on it. Not now, not with the FIA’s decision pending, and not with ADUO designed in a way that invites as much theatre as it does technical remedy.
Within the next two weeks, we’ll find out who the FIA believes is genuinely far enough off the pace to warrant extra development opportunities — and whether the rest of the grid buys into the idea that this is a controlled correction, rather than the first big political fight of the new power unit era.
