Mercedes accused of turning down their engine to receive ADUO help from the FIA

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Mercedes and Ferrari have been accused of ‘deliberately’ turning down performance from the internal combustion engine to gain support from ADUO.

The former have been dominating the 2026 season, winning every race thus far and leading the constructors’ championship over the latter by 79 points. Many would have assumed that the Silver Arrows would not qualify for ADUO, given that they have the best package.

Naomi Schiff felt the FIA would be spoiling Mercedes’ ‘hard work’ by giving their rivals additional upgrades. But the first ADUO ruling has given the Brackley outfit the upgrades instead, with Red Bull being declared the fastest engine.

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Mercedes and Ferrari accused of ‘deliberately’ turning down engines to gain ADUO benefits

Lewis Hamilton leaked the ADUO ruling at the Monaco GP, causing a major storm in the paddock. Many were baffled by the decision, as Mercedes have been the dominant force in 2026, while Red Bull have been struggling with the RB22.

As it turns out, ADUO is only decided by the power of the internal combustion engine and not the entire power unit. In that case, Red Bull probably do have the best ICE, while Mercedes make up for it in electrical power.

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But journalist Mark Hughes has suggested that Mercedes and Ferrari have ‘deliberately’ turned down the power of the ICE to gain help from the FIA through ADUO.

Speaking on The Race F1 Podcast, he has accused the two teams of not having the ‘optimum’ performance in the ICE. Mercedes are deemed to be 2% behind Red Bull, while Ferrari are 4% behind.

Hughes said: “But I think there’s several things going on here, and it’s so opaque that everybody’s only got a sort of small part of the picture. So we’re just putting things together just like everyone else.

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“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 those first few races up to Canada.

“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 slightly false picture, but I think it’s probably been made more unusual because the drivability of that Red Bull power unit is not very good.

“But as measured, it could well be that when it’s working properly and on song, it might actually be giving the best spread of power of all of the power units. But my guess would be that there’s been some gaming has gone on at both Mercedes and Ferrari.”