Hodgkinson (Red Bull): “Whoever has the advantage in terms of power unit in Melbourne will keep the advantage for a long time”

An engine change can take 9 months. In just over a month the 2026 F1 World Championship will begin in Melbourne. Teams and drivers still have six days of testing scheduled in Bahrain, but only in Australia will all the cards be revealed and, especially at power unit level, will it be discovered if anyone has an ace up their sleeve regarding the engine. Mercedes is the main suspect regarding a ‘launched’ start with regards to the power unit and two key appointments are scheduled this week regarding the rumors relating to the alleged hot ‘inflated’ compression ratio of the Mercedes engines from 16:1 to 18:1. The FIA ​​has introduced the ADUO, a system aimed at trying to level the performance of the power units with ‘evaluation interventions’ after six, twelve and 18 races, ‘checkpoints’ to establish any additional hours on the dynamic bench and extra budget to be granted to engine engineers who are lagging behind in terms of performance. The head of the Red Bull power units, Ben Hodgkinson, is not a big ‘fan’ of this system because in light of the homologations he would prefer to have more freedom of action given that the ‘gestation’ of changes to the power units is quite long: “I don’t think anyone who has studied this regulation is aware of the fact that a change to the power units takes much longer than for example an intervention on the chassis – said Hodgkinson as reported by the racingnews365.com newspaper – I would be more in favor of a free regulation, which allows you to compete ‘without gloves’. Whoever is ahead in the first race will remain so for a long time, the ADUO is certainly a help for those who have to recover, but those who have worked well will be able to take advantage of any superiority that emerges on their debut in Melbourne. The modifications to the power units involve interventions on very high precision metals and it takes 12 weeks to produce them, just as many more to test them and just as many more for them to be ready to debut in the race also because you potentially have to make them available. 12 examples of these power units ‘updated’ based on the ‘fleet’ of car you need to equip. It is unlikely that, for example, after the intervention of the ADUO after the sixth race in two weeks, a modification to the power unit will be ready”.