An overhaul of Formula 1's ADUO rules is on the cards for next year as part of a twin-pronged attack to make the catch-up mechanism work better at the front and help Honda at the back.

The Race has learned that the FIA is evaluating potential tweaks to the contentious ADUO (Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities) system for 2027.

It is hoped that this can avoid some of the headaches that have marred it this season - as well as help deliver on its original aim of being a safety net for those at the back rather than something influencing the fight at the front.

ADUO was originally intended as a means of helping manufacturers that had got things wrong have the ability to recover.

But it threw up unintended consequences, as well as causing a fair deal of controversy, when Red Bull was declared as having the best engine despite having not won a race.

Red Bull's frustrations were amplified by the fact that championship leader Mercedes was judged to be enough behind that it qualified for one development step this season and next.

One of the bones of contention was how the ADUO rankings were based only on the power output of the internal combustion engine and not the performance of the overall power unit.

That left F1 facing a situation whereby Mercedes, which is widely acknowledged as having the best performing package, is allowed to bring developments while Red Bull cannot because its ICE is so strong.

It has also become clear that the ADUO system can leave the benchmark manufacturer trapped in being unable to improve, because rivals can choose to only develop components that are not measured by the FIA when it does its rankings.

The issues exposed this season have added impetus to the FIA's long-standing belief that improvements to ADUO are needed.

And thoughts of further tweaks have accelerated in recent weeks off the back of a push by Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll to help his team's struggling engine manufacturer Honda get some extra assistance.

The Race has learned that the FIA is now looking into potential changes for 2027, when tweaks to the regulations to improve fuel flow rates are also coming into play.

Any revisions coming will be focused on two main areas: what makes the ADUO system as a whole better and also what can be done within it to offer more assistance to a struggling manufacturer such as Honda.

While analysis of what can be done is still at an early stage, momentum behind getting changes in place for next year could accelerate this week with teams gathering for the next meeting of the F1 Commission on Monday.

There, off the back of recent discussions regarding extra assistance for Honda, the ADUO topic could well get raised to see if there is consensus between manufacturers for change.

That could then set in motion a more formal move to change the rules through discussions in F1's Power Unit Advisory Committee (PUAC) that deals with engine regulations.

A work in progress

The FIA has long been open to the view that in the first year of its implementation, ADUO was very much a work in progress that always had room to be improved.

While the governing body rejects Red Bull's scepticism about it being F1's benchmark engine, the FIA never shied away from thinking that the rules could be improved.

The FIA's single seater director Nikolas Tombazis told The Race before the summer break: "I think our measurement, in my opinion, has proven to be very accurate.

"With that said, has everything worked fine? No, because obviously people are not happy and so on. So do we need to think about improvements in the future? Yes, I would say so."

The Race has learned that the FIA is now studying what changes could work to improve ADUO for next year - both to help struggling manufacturers but also alleviate concerns about how things are measured at the front.

While nothing has been decided yet, it is understood that a range of options are on the table.

This could include changes to the way that the ICE power is measured, so it takes into account elements such as turbo size, operating temperatures and outside factors that influence output like exhaust wings.

One route could be to base the ADUO rankings on the overall power unit performance rather than just the ICE, while there could even be a more radical way of deciding which manufacturers can improve.

Audi project chief Mattia Binotto suggested earlier in the year that it would be better to base allowances for improvement on constructors' championship positions and not a judgement on the power of a single component.

Tombazis has said many times that the FIA's preference was always to take more factors into consideration for judging the ADUO rankings.

Speaking about initial discussions on the rules with manufacturers, he said: "We offered whether we wanted to consider certain things like the turbo pressures, or the turbo diameters, or the operating of the plenum temperature, for example, and such like. 

"The universal position by the PU manufacturers back then was that we should keep it simple."

Reaching agreement

While a more complicated measurement system was rejected by manufacturers before, the views of everyone may well be different now that they have seen the ADUO system in operation, plus everyone has a better idea of how the 2026 regulations are working.

Key to change will be getting support from all the carmakers as any revisions to the regulations would need to go through the PUAC. 

For rule tweaks to happen, four out of the six manufacturers (Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, Audi, Honda and Cadillac) that sit on the PUAC would need to support them.

Impetus for getting a new ADUO framework in play could be increased though off the back of moves to try to bring Honda some extra help.

Honda has struggled in the first year of the 2026 rules despite having received a first batch of help at the start of the year following support from rivals.

This manifested itself in a package of measures that included Honda receiving a $19million spending boost - $11m of which was an increased allowance and a further $8m that was effectively a loan.

But with its situation having not improved dramatically, team owner Stroll has increased pressure for an extra leg-up - with Fernando Alonso also joining calls for help.

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem spoke openly at the Spanish Grand Prix last week about his desire to find ways to give Honda some assistance that would help give it a brighter future and keep Alonso in F1.

Ben Sulayem's viewpoint – and it is one shared by other manufacturers – is that nobody stands to benefit from having a major manufacturer like Honda struggling so much.

There is a clear acceptance that if the situation did not change, there would be an obvious risk of Honda pulling out of F1.

The matter has been raised with some manufacturers already, and early indications are that there is support for tweaks to ADUO to help Honda again.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff says he is open to the idea of handing Honda more help – because it is better for everyone if all manufacturers were competitive.

"I think ADUO was designed as a catch-up mechanism," he said. "That formula was unlocked for Honda, and they need more.

"The conversation that the president had with a lot of us is that we want to have all of these top constructors in the sport.

"We want them to be competitive and successful. We need the best of the best in the sport, and sometimes maybe we need an adjustment."

It is obvious, though, that if the FIA wants Red Bull to help Honda's cause then the governing body would likely need to offer it some form of compromise adjustment in terms of the wider ADUO system to help end gripes about how it has been measured and implemented so far.

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies suggested in Spain that, while he is in favour of making changes again for Honda, this will almost certainly prompt a wider debate about the entire ADUO process.

"We cannot agree on everything, but certainly as stakeholders of the sport, if there is a situation that needs fixing, that needs to be fixed, or needs to be supported, we normally find solutions," said Mekies.

"I'm sure that we will at some stage sit down and discuss the future of the ADUO regulations and the shortfalls. We know some of them, and I'm sure there will be a few others to address."

The Honda element

Key to working out what assistance works best for Honda will be in finding something that does not step over the line of being unfair to other manufacturers by hindering their own development and competitive hopes.

Honda itself has not been directly involved in any dialogue with the FIA about the situation, and it is also not one to stir things up in public as it prefers to keep a low profile on political matters.

Honda's trackside general manager Shintaro Orihara said at the Spanish Grand Prix that the focus for him right now was on working on planned developments into 2027 rather than hoping that there is a miracle step that can be delivered through a rule change.

Asked by The Race about Ben Sulayem's push for help, Orihara said: "I don't know what he is thinking about, so I don't think he can give us some magic.

"We will focus on our development plan and work hard to improve by ourselves. That is our plan at the moment."

Honda has elected to use only one of the two ADUO upgrades it is allowed to bring this season so it can instead focus on a bigger leap forward for next year.

Orihara said recently that there was some optimism that work to improve areas it is lacking will help unlock more power with its 2027 specification.

"We have a development plan to improve our performance for the future, for 2027 and 2028," he said. "I'm not saying we're going to be top competitors immediately, let's say in round one of 2027, but we are trying to bring big steps."

There is also going to be a change in its senior leadership team, with Yoichiro Fukao taking over as large project leader of the F1 engine programme from Tetsushi Kakuda.

Honda said that the move was aimed at helping "accelerate PU development" ahead of the revisions needed for the tweaked 2027 rules in which fuel flow rates will be increased.