The 2026 F1 ADUO Results: Every Engine Manufacturer Ranked From Winner to Loser
· Yahoo Sports
The FIA’s first ADUO assessment was supposed to reward the struggling and restrain the dominant.
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Instead, at its very first assessment, the catch-up system designed to level the playing field has appeared to benefit the dominant team.
The results, communicated to teams during the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, have scrambled the paddock’s assumptions about who actually has the fastestengine – and who deserves help closing the gap.
ADUO monitors each manufacturer’s internal combustion engine performance across set periods of the season, creating an ICE Performance Index – though the FIA itself admits the assessment doesn’t capture the full power unit picture, since the energy recovery system also plays a significant role in overall output.
Manufacturers running more than 2% behind the benchmark earn one upgrade this season and another in 2027; fall more than 4% back and that becomes two upgrades in each year.
Here’s how each manufacturer came out of it.
The Winners
Ferrari, Audi, and Honda – Two Upgrades Each
Ferrari, Audi, and Honda all fall into the category of being more than four percent behind on ICE power, which grants them two upgrades during the current season and two more in 2027.
On paper, that’s the maximum development runway available. In practice, it’s a mixed picture. Ferrari sits second in the constructors’ standings with a legitimately quick car, so two upgrade tokens represent a real opportunity to put pressure on Mercedes. Honda and Audi face steeper climbs – Honda’s trackside chief Shintaro Orihara has confirmed the team intends to use its ADUO allocation to target improvements to the ICE’s performance and friction before the summer break.
The catch is that Ferrari’s rivals aren’t standing still.
While Ferrari might have imagined that two upgrades would allow it to match championship-leading Mercedes, Mercedes has also been allowed an upgrade of its own – which has dampened the Scuderia’s hopes of reaching parity.
Mercedes – One Upgrade
Mercedes was found to be between 2% and 4% behind the benchmark, making the German manufacturer eligible for one additional upgrade this season and another in 2027.
Given that Mercedes has won every race so far in 2026 and leads both championships by a comfortable margin, being handed a development token while the season is still young is an extraordinary outcome.
The ADUO result is a surprise given Mercedes have largely had the best car and been strong on the straights during the six rounds so far.
Lewis Hamilton spoke about it after Monaco:
“Red Bull have the most powerful engine, Mercedes second, and then we [Ferrari] are behind,” he said. “We’ve got now these tokens to try to develop and close the gap. But that’s like an eight-to-10-month project, so it’s not something we can just do next week. We’ll be pushing as hard as we can to see how we can close it up.”
The Losers
Red Bull Ford Powertrains – No Upgrades
Red Bull Ford has been declared Formula 1‘s best power unit under the ADUO system, which is designed to ensure that no one manufacturer dominates the series.
As the benchmark power unit manufacturer – making their own engine for the first time in F1 – Red Bull will not receive an engine upgrade.
The problem is that having the best ICE on a dyno hasn’t translated to results on track.
Red Bull sit sixth in the constructors’ standings. Max Verstappen has not been near a podium. The RB22 is overweight, aerodynamically compromised, and the pace gap to the front is real.
Red Bull has been left surprised by the findings and is seeking clarification from the FIA on the methodology used to reach its conclusion.
Max Verstappen said: “I think we were all a little bit surprised with that news.”
Aston Martin
While its Honda engine is receiving the necessary upgrade tokens, the team was on the edge of being allowed more. Unfortunately, it scraped the edges of the results, forcing it to sit in the same performance gap as Mercedes and the others, despite it being the least powerful ICE.
The Silverstone outfit is continuing to fight through severe issues this season, so a bit more leeway would have been a nice results for the Adrian Newey-led team. Unfortunately, they get the same as the rest.
A key concern across the paddock is that ADUO assessments focus solely on internal combustion engine output, yet manufacturers that qualify for additional development opportunities are allowed to upgrade not only the ICE but also electrical components such as the battery and MGU-K.
That asymmetry matters a great deal. Red Bull’s rivals can improve parts of their package that the assessment didn’t even measure – while Red Bull, judged the best on a metric that doesn’t reflect the full competitive picture, gets nothing.
Once any review is complete, the findings could spark a broader debate about whether Formula 1’s new engine equalisation system is measuring the right performance indicators and delivering the competitive balance it was designed to achieve.
Two more ADUO assessment periods remain in 2026. Whether the system corrects itself or compounds the absurdity is now one of the more interesting subplots of the season.