FIA identifies three ways to ‘penalise’ Mercedes as Red Bull join calls for engine trick guarantees

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The saga over the legality of Mercedes’ 2026 F1 power unit is still ongoing, and a recent report has suggested that the FIA have now identified three different options in which they can ‘penalise’ the Silver Arrows over the alleged engine trick.

Before the new F1 cars had even been unveiled, the sport’s rumour mill was rife with accusations against Mercedes regarding their new engine, which has been built in line with the 2026 regulatory overhaul.

The discrepancy lies in the compression ratio that the engine performs at in an active environment.

The regulations state that the ratio must sit no higher than 16:1 under ambient temperatures, but the rulebook doesn’t say anything about the rate of compression that the engines must be at once it hits the track.

Red Bull were also understood to have acted within the so-called grey area of the regulations, which led to Ferrari, Honda and Audi creating a ‘political alliance’ to combat said trick.

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The FIA have identified three ways to ‘penalise’ Mercedes for their 2026 F1 engine trick

At the most recent meeting between personnel from each F1 team and the FIA, the sport’s governing body ruled that, as far as they were concerned, no rules were being breached.

FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis was then accused of not understanding the issue’s severity, and Ferrari expressed their intention of continuing to push the matter further.

Now, according to a report from Motorsport Italia, three different options have been presented to the FIA in which they can ensure that the Silver Arrows aren’t gaining an illegal advantage with their new power unit.

The first option relies on the governing body allowing teams to spend extra money specifically to redesign their engines to catch up to Mercedes. However, it is ‘unlikely’ that the FIA will give this the green light.

The second option would be to impose a limit on the amount of performance Mercedes can extract from their Petronas fuel.

A flow meter could be inserted into the power unit to strictly limit how much fuel the engine takes, in the hopes of equalising performance between them and the rest of the engine manufacturers.

The final option consists of the FIA simply asking Mercedes to sign a legal document that explicitly says they are not breaching any rules that are laid out in the regulations.

It may seem trivial at first, but the implications that could arise from them being caught lying in the future could be huge, including a potential disqualification from the standings.

• READ MORE: FIA wants ‘closer look’ at Lewis Hamilton’s 2026 F1 car before allowing Ferrari’s ‘aggressive’ idea

Red Bull have joined Mercedes’ rivals in wanting a guarantee of legality from the FIA

Interestingly, the report also states that Red Bull have joined the calls of Ferrari, Audi and Honda for the FIA to guarantee the legality of Mercedes’ engine.

It was initially understood that the Austrian constructor had also put the engine trick to use in their very first F1 power unit to be developed entirely in-house.

However, Red Bull insiders ‘strongly deny’ that they are utilising the loophole that Mercedes have been accused of.

With one week of pre-season testing now in the books, Mercedes looked to have brought the strongest package to Barcelona following a painless three days of data gathering in Barcelona.

It definitely hasn’t gone unnoticed, and a protest is expected to be submitted upon the grid’s arrival in Melbourne for the opening round of the season.