Starting from the 2026 Formula 1 season, power unit manufacturers that encounter performance difficulties will have the opportunity to benefit from ADUO. Nikolas Tombazis, the director of the FIA Single-Seater Technical Department, has explained what this system entails and clarified that it will not function as a form of Balance of Performance.
The 2026 F1 technical regulations will represent a true revolution, completely reshaping the concept and aerodynamics of the cars while also introducing significant changes to the power units. This overhaul will retire the current ground-effect cars and usher in a new era of technical development. Over the past months, the new regulations have gradually taken shape, allowing teams to begin designing the cars that are scheduled to debut on track during the shakedown at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in late January.
Digging into the technical regulations (the latest release, dated July 31, is the 13th in the series), one section focuses specifically on power units and introduces a notable acronym: ADUO, which stands for Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities.
The FIA technical department, responsible for drafting and continuously refining the 2026 regulations, developed ADUO as a mechanism to give power unit manufacturers facing performance challenges a fair chance to improve and remain competitive throughout the season.
Nikolas Tombazis explained the concept to Motorsport.com: “There is a cost gap between power unit manufacturers. For this reason, from the very beginning of these regulations, there has been a concept called ADUO—Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities. This concept is the result of extensive work. It was present from day one of the regulations, but in recent months, further details have been added to define precisely how it will function.”
Nikolas Tombazis continued, explaining the practical application: “Every five to six races, the average performance of each power unit manufacturer will be measured. Those who fall below a certain performance threshold, depending on how far behind they are, will receive a benefit that will accumulate over the course of the season.”
With only four months remaining before the end of the current 2025 season, it is already clear what Tombazis means by “benefit.” This will consist of three main components designed to help struggling manufacturers improve their situation.
“The benefit will include three key elements: additional funding for development, extra hours on the test bench, and the opportunity to carry out a new engine homologation. In this way, any manufacturer lagging behind will have the opportunity to accelerate development and recover lost ground.”
Nikolas Tombazis was careful to emphasize that ADUO is not intended to equalize performance between manufacturers. “I want to make it clear that this is not a form of Balance of Performance, as we see for example in the World Endurance Championship,” he said. “All manufacturers will still need to adhere to exactly the same technical regulations. ADUO does not provide more engine displacement, additional fuel, or any other performance advantages.”
He elaborated further: “Normally, without a cost cap, a manufacturer that falls behind could simply invest heavily to catch up. For example, when Honda struggled in 2016, 2017, or at other times, they had to spend significant amounts of money for a period of time to recover. With a cost cap, however, the risk is that a manufacturer could remain perpetually behind, unable to recover, and potentially humiliated throughout an entire regulation cycle. Clearly, we do not want that to happen, and we do not consider it fair. This is why ADUO exists, and it is currently being fine-tuned. I must say that the power unit manufacturers have been extremely collaborative on this topic.”
Nikolas Tombazis also mentioned initiatives still under discussion, which may be approved after the consultation phase. One such proposal addresses the scenario where a manufacturer experiences severe reliability issues, for example breaking engines in every race. Such failures could cause a manufacturer to approach or exceed the cost cap very quickly.
“There is another initiative that addresses situations where a manufacturer has significant reliability problems from the start. Imagine a scenario where a team breaks an engine every race weekend, and each engine costs a substantial amount. They could suddenly find themselves approaching their cost cap due to these failures,” Nikolas Tombazis explained.
“In such cases, they would need to limit development to stay under the cap, which could create a disastrous situation. The initiative we are discussing provides relief once a manufacturer exceeds a certain number of engine replacements. Beyond that threshold, the cost of additional engines is counted much less against the cost cap. Of course, this does not reduce the real financial cost of building the engine—they still pay the same—but it protects manufacturers from being trapped in an impossible situation where they cannot respond to the cost cap and are penalized for circumstances beyond their control. It would be unfortunate if that happened, and ADUO is designed to prevent such scenarios.”
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