[Saba Sports News] With the Mercedes W17 having largely established itself as the performance benchmark, it is widely believed that Ferrari, Audi, and Aston Martin all stand a chance to trigger the ADUO mechanism. Red Bull, by contrast, currently appears to remain within the 2% performance margin and will most likely not receive additional power unit development allocations.
ADUO stands for Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities. Specifically, if a power unit manufacturer is significantly lagging in internal combustion engine performance, it will be permitted to carry out upgrades to improve its competitiveness. The prerequisite for triggering this mechanism is a performance gap of at least 2%. Under such circumstances, new engine components can be homologated and introduced even mid-season.
Among these potential beneficiaries, Ferrari’s situation is the most representative. Its early-season performances have clearly demonstrated that its main weakness compared to the Mercedes W17 lies in the power unit, both in terms of energy deployment and maximum internal combustion engine output. Furthermore, Ferrari differs from the other candidate teams: it is the only one that both genuinely requires ADUO support and has the ability to translate it into on-track competitiveness to challenge Mercedes.
In our view, the ADUO mechanism is a key tool introduced by the FIA under the 2026 regulations to maintain competition among multiple manufacturers. Teams such as Ferrari are expected to benefit, although its actual effect remains subject to official evaluation and on-track verification.