AR3-GP wrote: ↑08 Jun 2026, 15:35
AR3-GP wrote: ↑08 Jun 2026, 00:29
In my opinion, Mercedes being granted any ADUO at all significantly weakens the effectiveness of Ferrari's ADUO concession. It just means that Mercedes have to release all the updates as a single bigger PU update (PU 3 or PU 4) where Ferrari will likely introduce it in smaller steps (PU 3 and PU 4).
For Ferrari too, while it will be allowed two upgrades this season and two the next, the fact that Mercedes has some allowance for one upgrade each year will limit the progress it can make in relative terms.
It means Ferrari is no longer chasing a stationary target. So if Mercedes has plenty in its back pocket, Ferrari could find that it may not even get any closer even with the extra development opportunities it now has.
The ADUO outcome is one that, rather than helping Mercedes' rivals catch up as they had hoped, could now ultimately end up hurting them in keeping the status quo or even resulting in them falling further away.
While Mercedes and Red Bull have been supportive, Audi has reservations about cost implications in making change for next year while Ferrari has been concerned about what impact this could have on ADUO.
Ferrari's worry was that if everyone had been allowed to change engines for next year to accommodate an increase in fuel flow, then that would allow Mercedes to work more on its power unit. Better, in Ferrari's perspective, to keep things the same and not allow Mercedes any freedom.
But that view was based on Mercedes being deemed under ADUO the benchmark engine - so therefore not allowed any homologation upgrades.
Now things have changed and the door is open for Mercedes to make changes with or without any hardware revisions towards 60/40 in the rules.
https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/f1-s ... sequences/
It’s a frankly absurd situation, there’s no doubt about that.
Personally, I still think it’s better that Ferrari got two upgrades (and two more next year) - even though Mercedes get one each year - rather than getting one per year and Mercedes none. I know that flies in the face of most of the logic but it means that Ferrari can take incremental steps, rather than needing one big upgrade to do everything. Part of my thinking is based on an assumption that, given the time and upgrade opportunities, there’s no reason a company like Ferrari should not be able to at least match whatever Mercedes can come up with - at the end of the day, if they can’t, we don’t deserve to win.
I don’t want to only win because the others have been locked in (I also don’t want to lose because the others have done a dodgy compression ratio trick, but that’s a different story…)