Audi Boss Calls on FIA to Rethink ADUO After ICE‑Only Measurement Draws Criticism

Overview

• Mattia Binotto, Audi’s F1 project chief, publicly urged the FIA to rethink the ADUO upgrade scheme on Friday after the provisional allocations produced contested and counterintuitive results.
• ADUO currently uses standardized on‑car torque sensors to measure only V6 (internal combustion) power on track and then awards extra homologation slots, dyno hours and scaled cost‑cap leeway based on that deficit.
• The FIA’s early ranking from the first five races left Audi, Ferrari and Mercedes eligible for midseason upgrades while Red Bull was locked out and its protest was rejected, and the authority’s recheck has not overturned those provisional allocations.
• Critics say the ICE‑only benchmark can be gamed because teams can run conservative engine maps or rely on strong chassis performance to mask true engine output, yet manufacturers originally insisted on keeping the metric simple.
• The dispute raises governance questions because ADUO was meant as a convergence safety net in a largely frozen rules cycle, any formal redesign would need agreement among power‑unit makers, and further ADUO reviews later this season will shape 2027 entitlements.