Red Mist: Ferrari played a perfect round of ADUO poker in Montreal

For those of us who kept an eye on it, Ferrari played a perfect round of ADUO poker in Canada this past weekend. With Formula 1’s first round of FIA Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities engine upgrades about to be doled out this week, Maranello took every possible opportunity to highlight the plight of its alleged power discrepancy.

ADUO is a new Formula 1 process designed to help underperforming engine manufacturers catch up to more powerful rivals without penalising the leading teams. Kind of a safety net to prevent any one power unit supplier from dominating an engine regulation cycle. As Renault, Mercedes and Honda have done in recent years.

FIA is using ADUO to evaluate and rank the performance of each internal combustion engine on the grid. The system takes engine speeds, torque, and other machine metrics into consideration to create an ICE performance index. If a manufacturer falls behind the leading engine benchmark, they are granted extra development leeway and upgrades based on specific deficit thresholds.

So engines that are two per cent off the pace are granted an additional homologation upgrade for the current season and also an extra upgrade for the following year. They are also allowed more engine test bench hours.

Teams with four per cent or more of an ADUO deficit will earn double the upgrades. Teams lacking 8% or more power even gain future cost-cap reprieves and maximum test bench hours to accelerate their engine development.

However, with 2026 being a new engine season, the FIA will consider four ADUO upgrades this year. And the first ever FIA ADUO handout happens before Monaco next week. Then following the Hungarian Grand Prix in June, Holland in September and Mexico in November.

This first round of ADUO reprieves clearly had the engine builders, not least of all Ferrari, in a bit of a tizzy this weekend. They all did their utmost to highlight their alleged power plight in Canada.

So much so that you’d swear that the FIA will take team bitching into account as it makes its ADUO calls. Ferrari has bitched and moaned about its power deficit since Australia. But with that crucial ADUO call coming up next, the Scuderia was clearly all out playing a canny hand of ADUO Poker in Montreal.

It’s a very worthwhile game to play too, with a $3 million win should the FIA deem the deficit to be greater than two per cent. Double that for four.

So both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc continually complained. Asking for more power on every possible occasion over the team radio. And then they kept on bemoaning their power disadvantage at every possible opportunity out of the car.

Some of us are even convinced that Hamilton did everything he could to exaggerate his lack of power while chasing Verstappen down before his utterly spectacular move on Max for second.

“We’re probably a little bit quicker through the corners, but everything we gain in the corners, they gain back on the straights,” Lewis pointed out post-race. “So considering Montreal is a real straight-line-speed circuit and we just managed to hold on and get this result, that definitely gives me high hopes for what’s ahead.

"We must keep pushing and keep trying to extract more. It was amazing to be back in that position and hunting down a champion up ahead. Calculating, trying to figure out how to maximise the amount of power on my battery bar each time, and making sure that I had enough at that particular point.

"And, yeah, thank God I managed to pull it off. It’s a great feeling when you overtake as well, but these cars are also awesome to be able to follow," added the seven time F1 World Champion

Hamilton was heard more than once begging for more power on the pit-to-car radio. “I kept asking for more power because I was able to hold on or keep up with them through the corners, but I couldn’t push the pedal any further.

Lewis elaborated in the post-race interviews. “So you saw them just eking out on the straight. I caught them back in the brakes, they eked it out again on the straight and so on. It really was hard! Even when we were inside the overtake zone, when we got within a second, they still pulled away.

"So that’s how much grunt that they have. We are massively down. So yeah, if you take away the power deficit, we’re in the fight with these guys. But unfortunately that’s not the way it was today. I really hope with this new rule that enables us to try to improve some performance, we can get back in the fight with them.

“A positive this coming weekend is Monaco; that’s the one track where power is not king. It’s definitely more about car performance, so I think our car could be really strong there even just as it is. I’m going to focus on making sure I arrive there with the same energy as I had this weekend.

We will study hard with the engineers to make sure we position the car in the right place from practice 1. But Monaco should be fun," added Hamilton.

Teammate Leclerc rued Canada as his worst race ever in spite of a positive fourth-place result. He too complained of a lack of power from the cockpit, and again, after. "I think it's going to be very difficult to catch Mercedes. I think they have a very big advantage. And ADUO? I mean, we obviously don't even know yet if we are in.

“I'll be surprised if we don't earn an upgrade. Because I can see in the straight that we are lacking compared to the Mercedes and Ford power units. Earning an ADUO break will definitely be a help to get closer. Whether it will be enough to close the gap, I don't know. It also depends on which level we get, if we get it at all, but surely if we get it, it will be a help to get closer."

Team boss Frederick Vasseur has left it mostly to the drivers to do the ADUO talking, but he has not let the opportunity slip when asked. “We’re close to the threshold, but all the teams are in the same place considering how close the performance margins are across the grid,” Fred warned in his best poker face. “I think we're within the required range, but it’s up to the FIA, so let’s see what they do in the next two weeks...”

Either way, Ferrari has played a great game so far in 2026. Both on track and at the poker table. Leclerc and Hamilton sit third and fourth behind the dominant Mercedes in the driver’s chase. And both of them are within a second place's worth of points behind Russell in third. But Maranello may just have an ADOU reprieve, or two, up its sleeve. Poker face or not…