Vasseur admits Ferrari is still missing pure power after second ADUO upgrade fails to close Mercedes gap

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has acknowledged that the Scuderia’s second ADUO power unit upgrade, introduced at Monza, has failed to close the engine gap to Mercedes — and that he never expected it to.

Mercedes has held the most powerful power unit since Formula 1 adopted its new technical regulations in 2026. The Additional Development and Upgrades Opportunities (ADUO) system was designed to allow manufacturers lagging on power to catch up, with Ferrari, Audi and Honda each entitled to two upgrades across 2026 and 2027, while Mercedes — whose internal combustion engine was assessed as less powerful than Red Bull’s — was granted one upgrade per season.

Ferrari’s two upgrades debuted in Austria and at Monza respectively, but neither has meaningfully reduced the deficit. At Monza, the most power-sensitive circuit on the calendar, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton qualified fourth and fifth, with Ferrari’s power unit clocking 5.6 km/h slower than the benchmark in qualifying. The race brought further misery when Leclerc crashed out after making contact with Hamilton at the start.

When Motorsport.com noted that Vasseur had previously warned the ADUO upgrade would not be a game changer, the Frenchman offered a wry response. “At least I was right on something,” he said.

Vasseur was direct about the nature of the shortfall. “When you have a lack of pure power, then you start to play with deployment to try to compensate in one straight line,” he explained. “But if you deploy more somewhere, for sure you will deploy less somewhere else and then you are going in the wrong spiral. Honestly, it’s not about deployment — we are missing pure power.”

He also illustrated how the power deficit compounds on high-speed tracks. “If you are missing X in Zandvoort, you are two or three tenths down. If you are missing a bit less than X in Monza, the delta with the Merc is two times bigger.”

Mercedes, notably, has yet to introduce its own sole permitted upgrade for 2026, with that development expected in October. When it arrives, Ferrari’s relative position could worsen further before any improvement is possible.

Vasseur also pointed to the power unit cost cap as a constraint on how quickly Ferrari can address the deficit, describing the development process as “mega long” — suggesting a swift resolution is unlikely before the regulations evolve again.