FIA Declares Red Bull's Engine Best In F1, Gives Everyone Else Catch-Up Tokens

Thousand-dollar event tickets and stadium parking-lot races aren't the only things Formula 1 is co-opting from the United States. Competitive parity mechanisms, like the draft, are a cornerstone of American pro sports leagues. F1 launched its own in line with this season's new technical regulations to keep power units somewhat close over time. The FIA announced on Wednesday that Red Bull's internal combustion engine was the best in the field by a large enough margin that every other manufacturer would be granted special allowances to help shrink the deficit.

F1's mechanism is officially called Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities, or ADUO for short. The FIA continuously monitors power unit performance, with the organization revealing its findings after the 6th, 12th and 18th races this season. Any manufacturer that falls 2% or more behind the best-performing ICE is given an additional homologation upgrade for its power unit in the current and following seasons. It becomes two upgrades if the manufacturer falls over 4% behind the reference block. These upgrades are only awarded once per year and can't be banked for use next season. Under normal circumstances, in-season power unit development is banned.

With last Sunday's Dutch Grand Prix being the 2026's 12th race, the FIA released the results of the first two monitoring periods. Mercedes was deemed to be more than 2% behind Red Bull in the first period. Audi, Ferrari and Honda were all over 4% off the reference. There were no upgrades awarded during the second period as Mercedes didn't fall any further behind.

This entire ADUO system is far less straightforward than the NFL Draft, where the team with the worst record gets the right to sign the best player in college football. F1 power unit manufacturers are only being given the opportunity to upgrade their power unit. This isn't a silver bullet. There's no guarantee that these upgrades will be effective out on track. While NFL teams can rip up the contract of a draft bust, these teams are stuck with whatever changes they bolt to their engines. Nikolas Tombazis, FIA Director of Single Seater, said:

"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."

F1 fans may also be puzzled by Red Bull's placement at the top of the pecking order, especially with it being the debut season for its first in-house power unit. None of the four cars fitted with Red Bull Ford engines have even won a race this season. The best they have been able to muster is Max Verstappen's pair of second-place finishes in Austria and Hungary. However, the lack of success wasn't down to a lack of power.

The poor aerodynamics have been surprisingly the most serious threat to Red Bull Racing's 2026 campaign, like Gavrilo Princip going out for a sandwich. The team's macarena rear wing failed to close properly twice, causing Verstappen to crash in back-to-back race weekends. The energy drink-fueled aero wizards might have lost their touch, but it wasn't bad enough to make the four-time champion retire from F1.