The FIA's announcement of its findings from the first two Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) periods has served up answers and mystery in equal measure about Formula 1's engine ranking system.
On the one hand came the first official confirmation that Red Bull has started the 2026 rules era with the best internal combustion engine. It was something that had never been formally ratified by the FIA before now, with the initial analysis having instead leaked over the Monaco GP weekend within minutes of the information being released to manufacturers.
The FIA said at that time that Red Bull was the only manufacturer not able to upgrade its power unit, with Mercedes allowed one development step and everyone else - Ferrari, Audi, and Honda - two.
But the FIA's announcement this week of no additional upgrade tokens being handed out after the second review period fell short of offering any new information about how things have changed since the first review and what the latest ranking is. In a note tucked away in the middle of its release, the FIA stated: "Due to the confidential nature of this information, no further details on power unit performance index measurements will be communicated."
In an F1 world where details matter, the ranking of power units is critical to performance. So it was no surprise that the phones of manufacturers and teams lit up on Wednesday night as they tried to piece together a picture of where things stack up right now. And although details were sparse about what the FIA's findings were, there is enough out there to give us a broad picture of the situation and what it means for the fight at the front of F1.
What We Have (and Have Not) Been Told
Because of the sensitive nature of the FIA's analysis of the power units, it was agreed that whenever it released its ADUO rankings, the details it gave out would be light. However, manufacturers did want knowledge of whether rivals would have opportunities to bring upgrades, so a procedure was agreed.
The FIA's policy is to release a document (the ADUO 1 version seen above) that states simply how many extra homologation opportunities each manufacturer will get. Even though the information on offer is minimal, the first ranking - taken from the start of the season until round five in Canada - was enough to piece together a picture of where everyone stacked up.
That is because there are three grades of power units: the benchmark, any manufacturer 2-4% off that gets one upgrade, and those that are 4% or more off that get two. So post-Monaco, we could work out that Red Bull had been judged the best, Mercedes was between 2-4% off, and everyone else was more than 4% off.
The FIA's ADUO 2 document shows that the homologation steps are unchanged, but there is no more information than that. Manufacturers have been informed individually of where they stack up against the best and what allowances they get, but not where everyone else is ranked. While this leaves room for speculation, the silence suggests that the competitive order may have shifted, but the FIA is keeping the details under wraps for strategic reasons.
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