Audi’s team has now joined Red Bull, Cadillac and Aston Martin in responding to the controversy over the alleged ‘engine trick’ by Mercedes and the Austrian outfit. The now-German stable is calling on the FIA to ensure a level playing field, and warns it will never accept the governing body permitting the suspected loophole in the regulations for a year: “That would not be logical.”
The 2026 season hasn’t even started, yet the first controversy is already here. Mercedes and Red Bull are reported to have found a loophole in the new power unit regulations. Allegedly, the two teams have applied a ‘trick’ that increases the compression ratio of the power unit while the car is on track. That, according to reports, delivers extra power and lap-time advantage to the two outfits. The other engine manufacturers—Audi, Ferrari and Honda—are, to put it mildly, far from happy with the loophole attributed to Mercedes and Red Bull.
Cadillac team principal Graeme Lowdon—a Ferrari customer team—addressed the rumours earlier and appeared to take a veiled swipe at Red Bull and Mercedes. “What I have a lot of confidence in and am pleased about is that we have a completely legal power unit,” the team principal told Sky Sports. Audi’s team has now responded as well, saying it is relying on the FIA to make the right call.
‘We would never accept that’
“It’s a completely new rulebook. You need a level playing field,” says Audi’s technical director James Key during the launch of the R26 in Berlin. “If someone comes up with a clever diffuser and you say that’s not the right way, then nobody else may use it, but you can keep using it for the rest of the year. That doesn’t make sense. We would never accept that.”
“We trust the FIA will do that, because nobody wants to sit out a season if you have a clear advantage that you can’t do anything about in a homologated power unit,” Key continued. “So I hope the FIA will make the right decisions for us.” The governing body has scheduled a meeting on 22 January to reportedly discuss concerns about the loophole found in the regulations.
View the F1 calendar for 2026 here
