Ferrari confirms power unit upgrade for Austria, as Mercedes brings fixes for reliability issues

Ferrari will introduce its first power unit upgrade at the Austrian Grand Prix, while Mercedes also has new components designed to improve its reliability.

The FIA’s additional development and upgrade opportunities (ADUO) allow manufacturers to make changes to their power units mid-season, should they be deemed to be significantly below the performance of the strongest internal combustion engine (ICE). With Red Bull judged to be the benchmark, Ferrari has two opportunities during this season, and has its first ready for this weekend’s race in Austria.

“Formula 1 has always been about details and incremental, holistic gains,” Ferrari's power unit technical director Enrico Gualtieri said. “Power unit development typically follows long cycles, as every step, especially major ones which involve a more intensive R&D loop, requires extensive validation. For this reason, major concept changes or architectural shifts during a Formula 1 season are uncommon, particularly when they affect installation and integration with the car and its operating conditions.

“Since the beginning of the 2026 project, we have combined a continuous development approach with longer-term development programs, to fully exploit all available opportunities to increase the performance of our power unit. These two streams run in parallel and often reinforce each other. The entire team at the factory is now working relentlessly to make the most of the additional opportunities provided by the ADUO mechanism, in full alignment with our intended development roadmap.

“The update we are bringing to Spielberg is a relatively minor one and it’s the result of the work completed in recent weeks to transfer improvements from our development program to the track. It epitomizes key principles of our sport: continuous improvement, reacting quickly and deploying gains at the earliest opportunity.”

Gualtieri warns the developments will not significantly impact how strong Ferrari is this weekend, but provide a platform for future improvements.

“This update is not a major step, and it will not, on its own, change the competitive order," he said. "What it does show is the attitude of the team and our technical partners: to push continuously and to make the most of every opportunity to improve our package.

“In a championship as competitive as this one, it is unrealistic to expect a single update to transform the overall picture, especially under the current homologation and development constraints. Performance is built progressively, not only through hardware changes, but also through how effectively you optimize the package race by race.”

New components this weekend for Mercedes, meanwhile, are countermeasures to the recent run of technical issues for its power units which have suffered retirements in two of the past three races.

“I don’t think it’s always been related to a temperature issue, but this weekend we have a newer spec with updates in order to improve the durability and the reliability of the package,” Kimi Antonelli said. “The team has been working super-hard, because definitely we have been suffering from this kind of issue a bit often.

“This first big update, it’s not really about performance, it’s all about trying to make sure that these issues don’t happen again. I’m sure the team is finding the way and I think it’s a good step forward.”