F1's shock Red Bull/Mercedes engine ruling explained
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What is the significance of the Red Bull and Mercedes engine ruling?
The race is on, and with the world confused by the Mercedes engine being declared the second best in F1, we ask why it's getting upgrade brakes, and explain what's behind the driving style problems George Russell referenced during the Monaco weekend.
How does the ADUO system impact engine upgrades for teams?
I'm Ed Straw, and joining me to tell all are Mark Hughes and Scott Mitchell-Malm. Well, Scott, I'm calling this podcast much Adewo about nothing because I like a pun, but it's not really nothing, is it? So let's get straight into it because Adewo, of course, is additional development and upgrade opportunities to those not on first name terms. The FIA has ruled that the Red Bull Ford engine is the best in Formula One. And that means Mercedes, because it's deemed to be more than 2% off,
What driving style issues did George Russell mention after Monaco?
is getting the chance to introduce its upgrades. One this year, one next year. Now, everybody will be listening to this thinking, well, the Mercedes power unit is the standard setter and Mercedes has won all the races. So that's baffled a lot of people. So what is going on?
It's not just the people that will be listening to this podcast as well.
Why is the FIA's engine performance index controversial?
It's inside the paddock. It has prompted a significant amount of confusion, to say the least, and I suspect it will be very interesting to hear what people have to say off the record, much less on the record, in Spain about it. Basically, what it boils down to is that there's... there's the engine, which is, in this case, the internal combustion engine, the V6, and then there's the total engine, the power unit, which combines the engine and the electric side. And with the ADUO calculations, the way that the FIA puts together this performance index to benchmark the various engines, it only judges the V6. And There's been fears from the very start that manufacturers would work out ways that they can game this.
And also kind of the criteria for benchmarking it is unknown. And that's partly because the FIA was wary of... manufacturers finding ways to basically sandbag with their engines and kind of manipulate the outcome. So we don't really know exactly what the parameters are that they've got into, and therefore it's hard to judge how much different variables will impact what the FIA is looking at. I am aware of at least one manufacturer that thinks just purely, even if the FIA just simply goes about a V6 assessment, the basic things that you would need to analyse within the V6
How are the 2026 engine regulations affecting team dynamics?
will be impacted by choices that you've made for your car design and the kind of integration of the power unit into the chassis. And therefore, you are potentially going to try and get yourself an upgrade on the engine side because you have basically deliberately compromised your engine to get an initial chassis benefit. and put yourself in a position to upgrade the pu sort of further down the line so it is all murky partly out of design but also partly out of weird sort of f1 paranoia and and usual debate because we're waiting as we record this to get the the the final kind of revelation of everything but i don't think that's going to be particularly illuminating anyway because they're not going to say who's far like how far off everybody is and what the calculations are
Now, Mark, I'll ask you a mathematical question. What's the shenanigans to paranoia ratio on this one?
It's something in the order of 15 to 1. And if it had been under the pre-monocle regulations, it would be more like 18 to 1. But I think there's several things going on here, and it's so opaque that everybody's only got a sort of... a small part of the picture. So, you know, we, we're just putting things together just like everyone else. Um, if I had to be, um, if I had to be betting my house on what has really resulted in this outcome, I would say probably both Mercedes and Ferrari have been deliberately not having the optimum internal combustion engine performance for this, for those first few races up to Canada. Um, And that has resulted in Red Bull actually having the best power as measured according to the FIA's way of doing it.
And I would think that that is probably a slightly false picture, but I think it's probably been made more unusual because...
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the significance of the Red Bull and Mercedes engine ruling?
0:02–0:25
2
How does the ADUO system impact engine upgrades for teams?
0:25–0:56
3
What driving style issues did George Russell mention after Monaco?
0:56–1:14
4
Why is the FIA's engine performance index controversial?
1:14–2:56
5
How are the 2026 engine regulations affecting team dynamics?
2:56–4:57
6
What are the implications of the engine ruling for Mercedes and Ferrari?
4:57–10:57
7
How does George Russell's performance compare to his teammate?
10:57–12:01
8
What listener questions are raised about McLaren and Alex Albon's future?
12:01–1:00:23
Speakers
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