​Motorsport photoThe FIA’s ADUO announcement – the Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities for Formula 1 power units – had been a long time coming. In fact, after the results of the first period were shared with all teams and manufacturers at the Monaco Grand Prix, the press release was ready to go in exactly this form. The only thing missing was the sentence about the second period.The long wait was due to Red Bull expressing considerable dissatisfaction with the outcome of the first period behind the scenes, with even Oliver Mintzlaff getting involved.However, Red Bull had very few ways to challenge the result. The system undeniably has its weaknesses – more on those later – but the teams and manufacturers themselves agreed to it last year.Red Bull Ford Powertrains could therefore only request a factual review, but that did not change the outcome either. FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis said the governing body’s measurements had proved correct, despite Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies arguing that there was “not a single data point” showing that Red Bull had the best engine.Among other things, Red Bull pointed to its deficit at power-sensitive tracks. According to Mekies, that deficit was greater than at circuits such as Monaco and the Hungaroring, where the power units play a less significant role. In reality, that picture is also related to energy management at energy-starved tracks and how good – or not – a power unit is in that respect.Those are factors the FIA does not take into account, as the ADUO ranking only measures the power output of the internal combustion engine. The FIA cannot publicly reveal too much about the exact measurement methods and data, not least because they involve intellectual property and confidential information.”Due to the confidential nature of this information, no further details on power unit performance index measurements will be communicated,” the FIA statement reads.As a result, the press release merely states that Mercedes falls into the 2%-4% deficit category, which earns it one upgrade opportunity in 2026 and another in 2027. Ferrari, Audi and Honda all fall into the plus-4% deficit category, which gives them two new homologations – in the current season and two more next year.The ADUO system was intended to help manufacturers lagging far behind, such as Honda, but has become a political battleground in F1The ADUO system was intended to help manufacturers lagging far behind, such as Honda, but has become a political battleground in F1In addition, all of these manufacturers receive extra financial headroom under the budget cap for power unit manufacturers. For Mercedes High Performance Powertrains, that means a cost cap allowance of up to $3m, while Ferrari receives up to $4.65m.Notably, an additional safety net has been introduced specifically for manufacturers in serious trouble – such as Honda. A manufacturer more than 10% behind the best ICE would rece