FIA Engine Ranking: Red Bull-Ford Still F1 Benchmark

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123Helmets Editorial Team

FIA Technical Report

The FIA has confirmed the second Additional Upgrades and Opportunities (ADUO) evaluation of the 2026 season, with the Red Bull-Ford internal combustion engine again rated the most powerful power unit on the grid, ahead of Mercedes, Audi, Ferrari and Honda.

Key Takeaways

FIA’s period-two ADUO review, covering the Australian Grand Prix through the Hungarian Grand Prix, again rates the Red Bull-Ford internal combustion engine as the most powerful on the 2026 grid.

Mercedes trails by 2% to 4% on power output; Audi, Ferrari and Honda are all more than 4% behind the benchmark.

Honda’s new powertrain, introduced at the Dutch Grand Prix, was excluded from this period’s data set.

No new homologation allowances were awarded in this ADUO cycle, despite earlier reports of extra tokens for Mercedes, Audi, Ferrari and Honda for 2026 and 2027.

What the FIA’s ADUO ranking says

The FIA’s second Additional Upgrades and Opportunities (ADUO) evaluation of 2026 again places the Red Bull-Ford internal combustion engine as the most powerful unit in the field. The analysis covers every race from the season-opening Australian Grand Prix through to the Hungarian Grand Prix, giving the federation a wide sample of in-season data to compare manufacturer output.

Mercedes sits closest to the benchmark, measured at 2% to 4% down on power. Audi, Ferrari and Honda are all rated more than 4% adrift of Red Bull-Ford, a gap the FIA says is drawn from what it calls thorough analysis of telemetry gathered across the covered rounds.

Why Honda’s new powertrain was left out

Honda’s revised power unit, introduced at the Dutch Grand Prix, was not included in this period’s ADUO figures. Because the evaluation window runs from the Australian Grand Prix to the Hungarian Grand Prix, any hardware introduced after that cut-off falls outside the current data set and will only be reflected in a future review cycle.

That leaves open the question of whether Honda has closed part of the more-than-4% deficit recorded for its earlier specification. Until the FIA runs its next assessment, the Japanese manufacturer’s newest package remains unrated by the governing body’s own numbers.

Homologation tokens: reported versus confirmed

No additional homologation allowances were confirmed in this ADUO cycle, despite earlier reporting to the contrary. After the first quarter of the season, it had been suggested that Mercedes would receive one extra homologation for both 2026 and 2027, while Audi, Ferrari and Honda were each in line for two additional homologations covering the same two years.

Those allowances, which would have combined extra cost cap allowance with further dyno running time, were never the subject of an official announcement. The FIA’s confirmation of the period-two ADUO ranking today did not include any grant of new homologations, leaving the earlier reports unresolved.

The FIA’s position

FIA director of single-seater Nikolas Tombazis says the governing body is confident in the quality of its analysis despite this being the first year the ADUO process has run. He described the review as thorough and exhaustive, adding that the FIA must balance transparency with the confidentiality and intellectual property of the teams and manufacturers involved.

Tombazis also acknowledged that the system is new and may change. He said the FIA expects to evolve elements of ADUO over time in discussion with all power unit manufacturers, an admission that comes as the process draws criticism from within the paddock.

Why the ranking is contested

The main criticism of ADUO is that it measures only the internal combustion engine, not the full hybrid power unit that determines lap-time performance in 2026. Mercedes, rather than Red Bull-Ford, has widely been considered to hold the strongest overall power unit package this season once the electrical and battery components are factored in alongside the combustion engine.

That disconnect is why a ranking that names Red Bull-Ford as the outright benchmark on ICE output does not necessarily match the wider paddock view of which manufacturer holds the fastest power unit end to end. The FIA’s own framework, by its own director’s admission, is still a work in progress.

“The FIA has undertaken thorough and exhaustive analysis as part of our ADUO review process. With the release of the findings of period two, we are confident that, based on the quality of the data, its analysis is incredibly robust, giving us a high level of confidence in our findings. We also have to respect the confidentiality and intellectual property of the teams and their power unit manufacturers in disseminating any details from the findings.”

— Nikolas Tombazis, FIA Director of Single-Seater

“This is the first year of ADUO so naturally there are areas which we may evolve over time, in discussion with all the PU manufacturers.”

— Nikolas Tombazis, FIA Director of Single-Seater

FAQ

Q: What is the FIA’s ADUO ranking?
ADUO stands for Additional Upgrades and Opportunities, an FIA process introduced in 2026 that evaluates the power output of each manufacturer’s internal combustion engine across a defined block of races and can award extra development allowances based on the findings.

Q: Which manufacturer leads the latest ADUO ranking?
Red Bull-Ford leads, rated by the FIA as the most powerful internal combustion engine in the period-two evaluation covering the Australian Grand Prix through the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Q: How far behind is Mercedes in the ranking?
Mercedes is rated 2% to 4% down on power compared with Red Bull-Ford in the FIA’s period-two ADUO analysis.

Q: Were Audi, Ferrari and Honda given extra homologations?
No new homologations were confirmed in this ADUO cycle. Earlier reports suggested Audi, Ferrari and Honda were each in line for two additional homologations for 2026 and 2027, but the FIA made no official announcement of that award.

Q: Why wasn’t Honda’s new engine included in the data?
Honda’s new powertrain arrived at the Dutch Grand Prix, after the ADUO evaluation window that runs only from the Australian Grand Prix to the Hungarian Grand Prix, so it falls outside this period’s figures.