Red Bull's hopes of gaining engine development concessions through the FIA's review have once again hit a dead end. The governing body released the outcome of its second periodic assessment for the Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) programme, with the competitive order established earlier in the season remaining unchanged.
The results show Red Bull Ford continues to set the benchmark, while Mercedes sits between two and four percent behind. Ferrari, Audi, and Honda are more than four percent adrift, though the FIA has not disclosed where each manufacturer falls within those bands.
Consequently, no new homologation opportunities have been awarded following the second assessment period, which incorporated data through to the Hungarian Grand Prix. Mercedes retains the additional upgrade it earned for both 2026 and 2027 following the opening assessment, while Ferrari, Audi, and Honda each have two additional homologation opportunities available this year and another two next season.
Those allowances are accompanied by additional spending and testing capacity designed to help manufacturers close performance deficits. Mercedes receives an extra US$3 million under the cost cap and 70 additional hours of bench testing. The allowance increases depending on the size of the deficit, rising to US$8 million and 190 hours for manufacturers between eight and ten percent behind.
ADUO opportunities are not cumulative, meaning the second review has not added to the concessions already awarded. This leaves Red Bull unable to make use of the catch-up provisions despite its continued concerns over how the system measures performance.
Red Bull's position as the benchmark is based specifically on the internal combustion engine rather than the performance of the complete hybrid power unit, with areas including battery performance and energy deployment not determining the ADUO ranking. That distinction has fuelled debate throughout the season, particularly with Mercedes widely regarded as possessing the strongest overall power unit package.
The controversy intensified after the Belgian Grand Prix when Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff declared his team had the most powerful power unit. Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies subsequently backed Wolff's assessment despite the FIA's numbers placing Red Bull Ford at the top of the ICE rankings.
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