Ferrari’s ADUO-2 power unit delivered a step forward at Monza, but not enough to fundamentally change the hierarchy against Mercedes. Oliver Bearman provided perhaps the clearest indication of what Maranello has actually gained from the latest engine development, describing an improvement that exists but remains considerably smaller than the progress Haas recently found through its aerodynamic upgrade.
The new specification arrived at the Italian Grand Prix carrying significant expectations, particularly because Monza is one of the Formula 1 calendar’s most power-sensitive circuits. Yet the upgrade did not produce the breakthrough some had perhaps anticipated too quickly. Instead, the weekend reinforced just how much work Ferrari still has ahead if it wants to bring its overall power-unit performance up to Mercedes level.
Oliver Bearman delivers his verdict on Ferrari’s ADUO-2 power unit
Oliver Bearman was the only Haas driver to have the updated Ferrari power unit available at Monza, giving the British driver an especially useful perspective on the size of the improvement. His assessment was direct.
“It’s a much smaller step than the aerodynamic upgrade was. Certainly, it has a little more impact at this track, but in terms of the season average, it would not have been enough to get us out of the Q1 fight, to be honest, if they had put that engine in at Zandvoort. I don’t think it was a game-changer.”
That is a significant statement because Oliver Bearman had an unusually useful comparison available within Haas itself. The American team brought only one ADUO-2 unit to Monza and installed it in his car, while Esteban Ocon continued to use the previous specification. The difference between the two configurations therefore gave the team a valuable reference for evaluating what Ferrari’s development had actually delivered.
The gain is real, but it is not enough to transform the Ferrari power unit into something capable of eliminating the accumulated deficit to Mercedes. That distinction is important when assessing the actual performance gain delivered by ADUO-2 at Monza. The update has improved the package, but improvement alone does not mean Ferrari has reached the benchmark.
It is precisely this point that should not be obscured behind the rhetoric surrounding new developments. The important measurement is not simply whether Ferrari has gained performance, but how much of the existing disadvantage has actually been removed.
Ferrari still lacks the ‘pure power’ needed to match Mercedes
The underlying problem remains outright power. The ADUO mechanism was introduced specifically to allow manufacturers further from the benchmark to make changes to their power units when the deficit to the best internal combustion engine exceeds the threshold established by the regulations.
Ferrari therefore had the opportunity to intervene twice during the 2026 season. The latest development followed a programme focused on improving several areas of the package, including the ADUO-2 turbo development centred on the compressor blades.
The difficulty for Maranello is that Mercedes, based on what has emerged so far, continues to represent the performance reference and has not yet introduced its own seasonal update. In other words, Ferrari has already used both of its opportunities without managing to reach the Mercedes benchmark.
Fred Vasseur acknowledged the problem with a description that leaves little room for alternative interpretations: Ferrari is still lacking “pure power”. That means the fundamental weakness should not primarily be regarded as an energy-management or deployment problem. Those factors are consequences of the underlying issue rather than its original cause.
If the internal combustion engine is short of power, engineers can try to compensate by changing how and where electrical energy is deployed around the lap. But the available energy remains finite. Every additional amount used in one section inevitably has to be taken away from another phase of the lap, creating a compromise that cannot completely compensate for the original deficit.
That relationship between combustion performance and hybrid deployment was already visible in Ferrari’s race energy-management strategy at Monza, where changing the areas in which the SF-26 released electrical energy could improve performance in one part of the circuit while leaving the car more vulnerable elsewhere.
Monza exposes Ferrari’s remaining performance deficit
Monza made the situation particularly obvious. Ferrari chose to introduce ADUO-2 during the weekend when engine performance was expected to have one of its greatest influences on overall lap time, but the comparison with Mercedes continued to produce an uncomfortable picture.
During qualifying, Oliver Bearman’s Haas was approximately 5.6 km/h slower than the Mercedes cars in terms of maximum speed. That difference is difficult to dismiss purely as the result of a different set-up, especially at a venue where power-unit performance carries so much weight.
The figures need to be viewed alongside the broader technical philosophy of the latest specification. Ferrari retained its existing turbo dimensions while introducing the update, with the latest development delivering an additional performance step without completely redesigning the concept. The details behind that approach can also be seen in Ferrari’s decision to keep the SF-26 turbo size unchanged with ADUO-2.
None of this means the project itself should be judged dramatically or regarded as a failure. ADUO-2 works in the sense that it has delivered something. The problem is that it has delivered too little compared with what Ferrari requires to close the gap at the front.
Ferrari improves its engine without changing the power-unit hierarchy
The key conclusion from Monza is therefore straightforward: Ferrari has improved its power unit without succeeding in changing the hierarchy among the manufacturers. The latest specification offers more performance, but Mercedes remains ahead in overall terms.
That is why the development needs to be assessed in the context of the wider Ferrari SF-26 power-unit concept and its Monza upgrade, rather than simply through the headline figure attached to one individual development. Recovering performance matters, but the size of the remaining gap matters more.
The situation could become even more challenging later in the season. If Mercedes does introduce its own planned update, there is a risk that the difference could begin to increase again. Ferrari has already used both of its 2026 development opportunities, while its main reference has so far remained competitive without deploying the equivalent seasonal step.
For that reason, the real judgement of Ferrari’s work should not focus on the few figurative centimetres recovered by ADUO-2. It should focus on the distance that still separates Maranello from the benchmark. The wider collection of Ferrari technical developments on the SF-26 shows how much work has been directed at improving the package, but the power-unit deficit remains one of the central challenges.
Oliver Bearman may have summed up the situation better than any formal statement when he concluded that the new engine had not been a game-changer. For a Ferrari team determined to return to the top of Formula 1, that is precisely the assessment that is hardest to digest.
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