Motors case, Red Bull safe: “We lawyers. Much ado about nothing”

The trick of the 2026 power units. The season had not even started before Formula 1 found itself dealing with a real case relating to the new power units that will be used from 2026. As is known, there is talk of the ‘trick’ to get around the engine’s compression ratio, limited to 16:1 and measured at room temperature with the engine off.
Various sources have indicated Red Bull and especially Mercedes as the engine manufacturers who would have managed to increase this compression ratio when the engine is running, exploiting the expansion of the materials at high temperatures, gaining something like three tenths per lap.
Naturally, until official comments are made, we remain in the realm of speculation, but next week – January 22nd – the FIA ​​is planning a meeting with motorsport engineers to discuss the issue. Red Bull’s comment On the sidelines of the presentation of the Red Bull RB22 livery, the technical director of Red Bull Powertrains, Ben Hodgkinson explained, in statements collected by the BBC: “Any engineer who does not understand what terminal expansion is should not be part of this sport, he does not deserve to be an engineer. Understanding how materials behave at different temperatures, pressures, stresses and loads is exactly our job. The regulations are extremely clear on the compression ratio. There is a limit of 16:1 and the regulation states that it is measured in a very specific way. There is a document that describes exactly how it is measured and that specifically says that it must be measured at room temperature.” The Autosport newspaper then reported other phrases from Ben Hodgkinson that were even more specific on the issue: “I think there is a bit of nervousness on the part of the various engine engineers, who fear that some are implementing some clever engineering stratagem. Honestly, I’m not sure how much to give credence to these rumours. I’ve been doing this job for a long time and they just seem like rumours”, and he assured: “I know what we’re doing and I’m sure it’s all legal. Obviously we’ve made the most of the limits allowed by the regulation and it would surprise me if if the others hadn’t done it too. I think there was a lot of noise about nothing, a lot of fuss. I expect everyone to get close to the 16:1 limit.