Toto Wolff has admitted that Mercedes has the most powerful power unit in Formula 1, sparking interest from Red Bull as ADUO monitoring returns to the spotlight.
One of the major political hot topics of the new era of Formula 1 was ADUO, with the FIA revealing that Red Bull-Ford power units were considered the benchmark on the grid rather than Mercedes. Having based its assessment solely on the V6 engine, as opposed to what it preferred to do when developing the rules, the FIA turned to Red Bull to verify its results.
While Red Bull admitted they wouldn’t be able to change the results, they remain adamant that Mercedes has the most powerful power unit and have expressed concern that rivals may be fooling them into being able to upgrade elements, although in theory they won’t be upgrading their V6 engines to keep Red Bull at the top of ADUO.
New intrigue in this saga appeared after the Belgian Grand Prix, when Mercedes boss Wolff openly stated that his team had the most powerful power unit, talking about constant reliability problems.
“We had a problem with all the Mercedes engines, we didn’t have enough power on the straight and it beat him (George Russell) a lot, it’s 100% going against us,” Wolff told Sky Sports F1 of Russell’s straight line speed problem which led to contact with Lewis Hamilton and his retirement from the race at Spa.
“We as a team try our best, we have the most powerful power unit, we have a strong car that can win, everyone does their best to minimize mistakes, and yet it happens because we are people at work.
“We let Kimi (Antonelli) down at Silverstone, where George got a podium which was probably better than the result should have been, and then one DNF won in Montreal, another DNF in Barcelona, that’s a bit of the story of our season here. It’s a technical sport, a mechanical sport.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo: Andy Hawn/LAT Images via Getty Images
When Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies spoke about Wolff’s reception, he wholeheartedly agreed, hinting at closing the second period of ADUO after the Hungarian Grand Prix next weekend.
“Toto is right. I also think they have the most powerful power unit,” Mekies said after the Belgian Grand Prix. “And of course this weekend they had a significant advantage in the straight again.
“But this is not the first weekend. Most weekends they have an advantage in the straight. And this weekend is a little more with the sensitivity of the track. So we’ll see what happens. As you said, the second period will close in a week in Budapest. We’ll see what happens.”
A lot of ADUO out of nothing
In the first ADUO period, Red Bull-Ford powertrains took the top spot for V6 engines, with Mercedes trailing 2-4%, meaning the company is eligible for one additional update this year and another next season. Ferrari, Audi and Honda were thought to be more than 4% behind and could get two updates this season and two more next year.
The second period of ADUO began with the Monaco Grand Prix and will conclude at the Hungarian Grand Prix next week. In theory, the results will be announced in no more than two weeks. However, the results of the first period of ADUO are still not officially published amid the Red Bull review.
So all eyes will be on the FIA after the Hungarian Grand Prix to find out the results of the second ADUO period and see if any changes have been made that could put Mercedes in first place. If that were the case, Red Bull’s power unit would still need to be discounted by at least 2% from Mercedes to be eligible for the upgrade option.
Additional reporting by Ronald Wording
Photos from the Belgian Grand Prix – Sunday
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