Heavy political victory for Toto Wolff
“The ADUO must be a system to help those in difficulty, not an elevator to surpass those who have worked better”. Thus Toto Wolff thundered at the start of the season against the prospect of seeing rivals allowed to improve their engines significantly to attack Mercedes.
Against all odds, in the end Mercedes was not recognized by the FIA as having the best thermal engine on the starting grid. The Federation indicated the Red Bull engine as the best on the market and therefore Mercedes was granted access to the ADUO with an update to be introduced in 2026 and one in 2027.
The latest issue of Autosprint, however, highlights how Mercedes can easily divert all the advantages it surprisingly gained – extra budget and hours on the dynamometer – with a view to 2027 without intervening in 2026, thus cornering and imprisoning the Red Bull power unit.
“Mercedes will be able to spend and exploit everything anyway without homologating a new specification, directly transferring the knowledge acquired on the 2027 V6 – reads the weekly in the article by Fulvio Solms – we are paradoxically facing a system that not only balances nothing, but makes the team, the World Champion, stronger and stronger.”
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