Has FIA played politics on ADUO to get all teams to take 60/40 power for 27?

[John S]

The shock of making Red Bull ICE the benchmark for ADUO and giving Merc one upgrade, whilst Ferrari, Audi & Honda get 2 upgrades, seems like insanity until you realise Ferrari in particular is most disadvantaged. 

Ferrari's view that Merc would be benchmark and not get any upgrade is now stood on it's head. 
Can Ferrari now hold out against 60/40 with Merc power being a moving target for 27 season? 

Whether by fair, or some may say dodgy means it appears FIA has outmanoeuvred Ferrari, Audi, et al. 

See below for a fuller explanation of why 27 power split of 60/40 is more likely to happen with all agreeing.


The political fallout for F1's 60/40 plans

The ADUO decision comes against the backdrop of a political dispute in the paddock over wider rule changes in F1.

The FIA is currently trying to reach agreement to get across the line a proposal to move F1 away from the current notional 50/50 split between combustion engine and electrical power.

An agreement in principle to make that closer to a 60/40 balance for next year has become hard to get across the line, as manufacturers baulk at rushing through changes to fuel flow that would require new hardware.

While Mercedes and Red Bull have been supportive, Audi has reservations about cost implications in making change for next year while Ferrari has been concerned about what impact this could have on ADUO.

Ferrari's worry was that if everyone had been allowed to change engines for next year to accommodate an increase in fuel flow, then that would allow Mercedes to work more on its power unit. Better, in Ferrari's perspective, to keep things the same and not allow Mercedes any freedom.

But that view was based on Mercedes being deemed under ADUO the benchmark engine - so therefore not allowed any homologation upgrades.

Now things have changed and the door is open for Mercedes to make changes with or without any hardware revisions towards 60/40 in the rules.

Right now it is understood there are two rule-change proposals on the table being evaluated, with the FIA preferring that what is agreed receives unanimous support rather than leaving one or two manufacturers marginalised.

The most aggressive route is the original lifting of the internal combustion engine power by 50kW (approximately 67bhp) for 2027. Due to the nature of the fuel-flow increase, this will require proper hardware revisions.

The compromise proposal - which Ferrari and Audi are understood to be happy to accept but some others don't want because they think is not enough - is for a 20kW increase next year with the current hardware and then a step to the full 50kW in 2028.

Up until the arrival of the ADUO announcement, there did not seem to be a common ground opening up that all manufacturers were in favour of.

But after the shock announcement that Mercedes will now get upgrades anyway - irrespective of whether F1 shifts to 60/40 - it may spur Ferrari to feel that its best bet to the front is not with the current ADUO, but is instead with new power unit designs totally and a reset.

Above taken from longer piece courtesy Jon Noble The-race.com, Today.

[lkjohnson1950]

I remember when the engine rules took up about half a page and generally just specified displacement.

[Alianora La Canta]

It's obvious that the FIA has not measured this properly, and I feel that, in combination with at least a dozen other clues, that this is because the FIA is deliberately trying to manipulate the championship in Mercedes' favour.