Wolff backs FIA's ADUO ruling after Red Bull tops rankings ahead of Mercedes

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has thrown his support behind the FIA’s ADUO ruling that stunned the Barcelona paddock, after Red Bull-Ford Powertrains — not Mercedes — was ranked as the strongest power unit manufacturer, stripping the newcomer of access to Formula 1’s Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities.

The verdict, communicated to teams during the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, upended the widely held expectation that Mercedes held the benchmark power unit. Red Bull has since asked the FIA to review the results once more, though that process is understood to be a factual check of sensor data rather than a wholesale reassessment.

Wolff acknowledged the irony of the situation, recounting a call from Alpine’s Flavio Briatore. “The first thing I heard was Flavio calling me, saying the deal was that he’s buying the strongest engine, and he’s found out that it’s not the strongest engine,” Wolff said in Barcelona. “But a new homologation is definitely something that is helpful. Because if you don’t get that, there is quite a possibility of being leapfrogged by somebody else who is able to do this.”

Despite previously suggesting — during the April break — that only Honda genuinely needed ADUO assistance, Wolff argued in Barcelona that the system is still functioning as designed, regardless of the surprising outcome.

“I think it was a protection mechanism, how it was intended to be, to avoid the 2014 situation that one engine manufacturer was having such an advantage and was running away with engine, with testing mileage and race results,” Wolff told Autosport. “We were on the good end of that, but this is what we wanted to avoid, especially newcomers coming in like Audi and to a certain degree Honda with Aston Martin, and Red Bull of course. That’s what it is, and that’s how it should be.”

The ADUO framework measures only internal combustion engine output to determine rankings, yet the upgrade tokens it awards can be applied to a broader range of components, including the battery and MGU-K. That mismatch between measurement scope and upgrade eligibility has drawn scrutiny in the paddock, though Wolff maintained that anchoring the system in objective data — rather than broader performance metrics — is the correct approach.

A formal public confirmation from the FIA on the final rankings has not yet been issued, with Red Bull’s review request still pending resolution ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix.