Laurent Mekies Forecasts Red Bull Powertrains Will Secure FIA Performance Subsidy After Mercedes Dominance

Red Bull's Laurent Mekies anticipates receiving FIA ADUO upgrades, citing a performance gap to Mercedes as the team seeks to recover its 2026 F1 campaign.

By: AXL Media

Published: Apr 6, 2026, 4:29 AM EDT

Source: Information for this report was sourced from PlanetF1

Navigating the FIA’s Performance Safety Net

As the 2026 Formula 1 season reaches its first technical checkpoint, Laurent Mekies has signaled that Red Bull Powertrains is likely to benefit from the FIA’s ADUO "safety net." This system is designed to maintain competitive parity by allowing manufacturers with a significant performance deficit to introduce upgrades outside the standard homologation schedule. According to Mekies, the RBPT unit, developed under Ben Hodgkinson, currently falls into the category of engines trailing the pace-setting Mercedes power unit by at least two percent.

The Mechanics of the ADUO System

The FIA’s performance index measures the internal combustion output of the five current manufacturers. Under these regulations, a power unit manufacturer (PUM) trailing the leader by more than 2% receives one upgrade allocation, while a deficit exceeding 4% grants two allocations. Mekies indicated that while RBPT has shown impressive reliability and core output, the "energy deployment" advantage held by Mercedes places Red Bull in the group of manufacturers—likely including Ferrari, Audi, and Honda—eligible for these early-season interventions.

A Milestone for Milton Keynes Independence

The 2026 season represents Red Bull’s first foray as a fully autonomous engine manufacturer, a project initiated by former CEO Christian Horner. Under the inherited leadership of Mekies, the RBPT project has avoided the catastrophic reliability issues facing some rivals, such as the vibration crises at Honda. While Max Verstappen suffered an ERS cooling failure in China and Isack Hadjar faced a power unit issue in Australia, the overall stability of the engine has been comparable to the Mercedes benchmark, even if it lacks absolute peak performance.