A promise from the FIA president, a green light from Mercedes, and a cautious response from Honda have triggered one of the most sensitive debates of the 2026 season. How far should the rules be bent to save a struggling manufacturer, and what does it mean when that struggle is tied to one of the sport’s biggest names?
FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem has promised to look at changes to help Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso after meeting team owner Lawrence Stroll in Madrid, but any change must go to a formal vote of manufacturers and the World Motor Sport Council.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has said he would support further help for Honda under the ADUO system, without specifying what that help should be.
Honda itself has cooled talk of a quick fix, saying there is no magic solution that can be handed to it before the end of the season.
Fernando Alonso has not confirmed whether he will race in 2027.
I. Seven Days in Madrid
The story did not start in a press conference. It started on the Thursday before the Spanish Grand Prix.
Ben Sulayem met Lawrence Stroll at the circuit. The next day he was scheduled to speak with Alonso. In between, on Friday, he spoke at the New Economy Forum in Madrid. His message was direct. He said Formula 1 cannot afford to lose Alonso simply because his car is uncompetitive. In one version of his remarks he added, “That’s not the way to leave the stage.”
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That sentiment alone would not have made news. Alonso’s future has been a talking point all year. What made it news was the second part. Ben Sulayem said he had asked Alonso what the FIA could do to improve Aston Martin’s results, and that he wanted to work with the Power Unit Advisory Committee – the body that brings together the FIA and all five power unit manufacturers – to find answers.
It was immediately interpreted as a personal intervention. Alonso himself added fuel. Speaking during the weekend, he said he talks regularly with F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali because, in his view, Formula 1 “cannot continue in this way.” He was not only talking about Honda. He was talking about the 2026 regulations as a whole, about energy management, about racing.
Then came the second headline. In a clip filmed with a small group of fans – some reports place it outside his hotel, others describe it as DAZN footage after the race – Ben Sulayem said Alonso had told him “I’m staying.” Alonso did not confirm it. When asked directly what it would take for him to return in 2027, he answered with a smile: “I have to renew, right?” He was careful to separate his conversations with the FIA about improving the show from his own contract decision.
It was after this that Toto Wolff weighed in. The exact timing is disputed, with some outlets placing his comments at the Madrid circuit and others in the days that followed, but the substance was consistent. Wolff said the conversation between the FIA president and Alonso was fair and reasonable, and that if the rules need adjusting for the good of the sport, they should be adjusted.
That endorsement changed the temperature. When a rival engine manufacturer says a competitor needs more help, the politics shift.
II. How ADUO Was Designed To Work
To understand the debate, you have to understand ADUO.
Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities was written into the 2026 power unit regulations as a safety net. The memory behind it is 2014. When the hybrid V6 era began, Mercedes arrived with a decisive advantage that lasted for years. The field could not catch up because development was frozen. ADUO was created to make sure that does not happen again.
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It was also designed with the newcomers in mind. Red Bull Ford Powertrains and Audi are both new to this generation of power units. And it was designed with Honda’s own painful history in mind. When Honda returned with McLaren in 2015, it was years off the pace with no real mechanism to recover.
The way ADUO works is straightforward in principle, complex in detail.
The FIA does not judge the whole power unit. It judges the internal combustion engine, the ICE, against a benchmark. Right now, that benchmark is the Red Bull Ford unit. Every manufacturer is measured on a dyno under controlled conditions. If you are within 2% of the best, you get nothing. If you are more than 2% behind, you get help. The help comes in three forms: extra dyno hours, limited relief on the power unit cost cap, and additional opportunities to introduce a new specification of a homologated part.
The scale slides. A deficit of around 2% gives you one extra upgrade window in the current year and one in the next. A deficit of 4% or more doubles that. The extra hours and money are meant to be used specifically to close the ICE gap.
The calendar matters too. Because the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix were removed from the 2026 schedule, the FIA reworked the assessment points. The three ADUO checks this year now fall after Canada, after Hungary, and after Mexico. The first two have happened. The last, which will be the final assessment of this season, is still to come. That final assessment is critical because it sets what help you carry into 2027.
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This is important context. ADUO was never intended to be a popularity contest or a driver-retention tool. It was intended as a technical balancing mechanism, applicable to any manufacturer that falls behind.
III. What Honda Has Already Been Given
If you want to ask for more, you have to acknowledge what has already been granted. Honda’s 2026 story explains why the FIA acted in the first place.
Honda reversed its decision to leave Formula 1 very late. By the time it committed to Aston Martin as a full works partner, it had to build a new engineering group, rebuild its facilities, and design a completely new power unit to a completely new set of rules. Other manufacturers had been working on their 2026 projects since 2022. Honda started later, with fewer people.
The result was predictable. The 2026 Honda power unit arrived overweight, underpowered, and unreliable. In both of the first two ADUO assessments, its combustion engine was measured as the lowest of the five. One assessment reportedly put it more than 4% behind the benchmark. That alone triggered the maximum help available under the original table.
Then the FIA went further.
In May, the FIA introduced an additional tier, created specifically for a manufacturer that was far off the curve. Without naming Honda, it created a new 10% deficit band for 2026 only. For any manufacturer more than 10% behind, the allowed dyno hours were raised from 190 to 230 hours, and the cost cap for the power unit side was adjusted upward.
This was not done unilaterally. The idea was discussed between the FIA and all five power unit manufacturers for weeks. A vote was originally scheduled before the Miami Grand Prix, was suspended, and then taken later. It passed, with support from rivals who understood the alternative was a team running at the back all year.
The financial details have been reported differently in different places, which is why you should treat any single number with caution until the FIA publishes its full figures. Some reports put the relief at $8 million structured as a loan that must be repaid over future seasons. Others put the new ceiling at $11 million. Sky Sports described it as £14 million in additional development budget. One specialist outlet headlined a $19 million boost, noting that no more than half of the relief could be counted in a single season to prevent a spending spike. The truth is likely a combination of direct relief and a repayable advance, but the exact accounting has not been made public.
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The second part of the help was hardware. Under ADUO, Honda had already earned extra upgrade opportunities. It used one of them at the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort in August. That was the Spec 2 power unit, which included a reworked combustion system, new battery packaging, and changes to the MGU-K and control electronics. The aim was not outright peak power, but driveability and energy deployment.
Alonso finished ninth at Zandvoort, Aston Martin’s best result of the season to that point. The wider picture remained difficult. Both Alonso and Lance Stroll were still qualifying near the back at most circuits. Aston Martin technical chief Enrico Cardile has said publicly that Honda itself acknowledges it is behind on total power and is prioritizing making the power it does have usable and consistent.
There is also a performance metric that has circulated from Madrid. Alonso reportedly described a straight-line deficit of 37 kph on the main straight compared with the fastest cars, a figure that was echoed by Stroll in blunter terms. That figure comes from a single weekend and a single circuit configuration, so it should be read as a snapshot of how the deficit felt at a power-sensitive track, not as the official FIA measurement.
IV. What Wolff Actually Said
The headline that Toto Wolff backs FIA help for Honda is accurate, but it needs careful parsing. What he said and what he did not say both matter.
What he said, as recorded by multiple outlets, is this: ADUO is a catch-up mechanism, its formula has been unlocked for Honda, and Honda needs more. He described the conversation between Ben Sulayem and Alonso as reasonable. He said the sport wants its top constructors competitive and successful, and that rules exist for the good of the sport and sometimes need to be adjusted.
Three qualifications are important.
First, it was not a proposal. Neither Wolff nor Ben Sulayem laid out what a new version of ADUO would look like. Would it increase dyno hours again? Would it add cost cap headroom? Would it broaden the assessment beyond just the ICE to include the electrical side? No draft text has been published.
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Second, the word “fair” has been used in two different ways. Some summaries said Wolff called it fair for the FIA to give Honda more help. The direct quotes from Wolff apply the word fair to the conversation between the president and Alonso. It is a small difference, but it is the difference between endorsing a process and endorsing a specific rule change.
Third, one manufacturer’s goodwill does not change the rules. Any change to the power unit regulations requires support through the Power Unit Advisory Committee and then a vote of the World Motor Sport Council. Mercedes can lower the political cost of that conversation by saying it is open to it, but it cannot carry it alone. Red Bull Ford, Ferrari, Audi, and Honda itself all have a vote and a veto in practice, because changes made without broad manufacturer support tend to end up in legal challenges.
Wolff’s position is therefore best understood as a signal. As a rival engine supplier, Mercedes has the least to gain from helping Honda. If Mercedes says it is open to rethinking ADUO, it becomes much harder for anyone to argue that helping Honda would distort competition. It opens the door for a discussion without committing to where that discussion ends.
V. The Governance Question
Who decides is as important as what is decided.
Formula 1 power unit rules are not changed by a speech. They are changed through a process. The FIA proposes, the manufacturers discuss in the advisory committee, and the World Motor Sport Council votes. That is what happened in May, and that is what would have to happen again.
The May process is instructive. The FIA and the manufacturers had been discussing Honda’s situation for weeks before anything was made public. The initial vote was delayed. When it finally passed, it was presented as a technical correction for 2026 only, not as a permanent rewriting of ADUO.
What is being floated now would be more significant. One option described in broadcasting coverage is to change ADUO so that it is not judged only on combustion engine power. At the moment, you can be dominant on the electrical side and still be the benchmark, or be weak on the electrical side and receive no help because your ICE is close enough. If the sport moved to a 60-40 split between combustion and electric energy, which is already being discussed for 2027, a purely ICE-based measurement would miss a large part of performance.
That would be a structural change. It would affect all manufacturers, not just Honda.
The politics around it are already visible. Some reports have framed Ben Sulayem’s comments as a personal intervention on behalf of a star driver. Others have questioned whether the FIA president should be involved so directly in a technical matter that should sit with the technical department. And some cynics have suggested Alonso made his decision about 2027 long ago and is using the debate to push for wider regulatory changes he wants anyway, such as an earlier return to V8 engines than the planned 2031.
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The most honest assessment was offered early in the week: a president can set the agenda and offer encouragement, but he cannot sign a driver contract and he cannot put horsepower into an engine.
VI. Honda’s Own Position
The most cautious voice in this debate has been Honda’s.
Technical chief Shintaro Orihara has said plainly that the FIA cannot hand Aston Martin a quick fix, and that he is not aware of any meeting about extra help beyond what has already been granted. That does not necessarily contradict Ben Sulayem’s meeting with Stroll. The president met the team owner, not the engineers in Sakura.
But the gap between confidence in Madrid and caution in Japan is real.
Honda is also in a transition. On October 1st, Yoichiro Fukao will take over from Tetsushi Kakuda as the head of its F1 project. The company is reorganizing its structure for the rule changes already expected from 2027, when the electrical share of the power unit will increase and the way energy is deployed will be rewritten. Honda has always been a long-cycle company. It does not respond well to being asked to produce a new combustion concept in eight weeks.
That engineering reality shapes what extra help could actually achieve. More dyno hours only help if you have parts to test. More cost cap relief only helps if you have people to do the work. Honda is still hiring and still building. An extra upgrade token is only useful if the upgrade you introduce is reliable. The Spec 2 unit improved driveability but, by most independent assessments, delivered only a modest step in outright performance.
VII. The Alonso Variable
Alonso is the reason this story exists, but he has been careful not to tie his future to ADUO.
His frustration is broader than one engine. After the British Grand Prix sprint, he complained about the current energy management rules, about super clipping and harvesting, where drivers have to lift and coast not to save fuel but to keep the battery in the right window. In his view, it leaves no room for driver input in overtaking. He has said publicly he hopes the return to V8 engines, currently planned for 2031 when the next regulation cycle ends, can be pulled forward.
That is a much bigger agenda than an extra 40 hours on a dyno.
Aston Martin’s position is equally measured. Ambassador Pedro de la Rosa has said plan A is for Alonso to continue, while acknowledging there is logically a plan B. Alonso is 45. He has driven for Honda before, during the difficult McLaren-Honda years from 2015 to 2017, so he knows better than most what a recovery program feels like. That history is why his scepticism about quick fixes carries weight in the paddock.
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There is also a timing problem that one analysis put bluntly: any additional help given to Honda now, with the final ADUO assessment due after Mexico and the 2027 power units already in advanced design, may arrive too late to affect whether Alonso decides to race in 2027. Even if the rules are changed in November, the hardware that benefits from those rules may not race until mid-2027.
Alonso has not confirmed his plans. As of the end of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, he has said his talks with the FIA about improving the product are independent of his contract.
VIII. Three Tests Any Further Help Should Pass
If you strip away the personalities, the question becomes a regulatory one. Any further concession should be judged against three simple tests.
First, is the gap measured and published? ADUO works because it is based on a number. If Honda is more than 4% behind on the FIA’s ICE measurement, or more than 10% behind on the broader press understanding that triggered the May tier, that number should be disclosed. Without a published gap, it is impossible for fans or teams to judge whether help is proportionate.
Second, does it fit ADUO’s purpose? The system was created to prevent a repeat of a multi-year dominance and to help any manufacturer that falls behind, especially newcomers. It was not created to keep a specific driver on the grid. If more help is justified, it should be justified as help for a manufacturer in Honda’s position, with the same help available to any other manufacturer that finds itself in the same position.
Third, is it usable? Honda has already received the maximum upgrade allowance from the first review cycle. Its own technical leadership says there is no quick fix. More hours and more money only matter if the engineering pipeline can absorb them and turn them into reliable, legal performance before the next homologation freeze. If the team cannot use the help this year, the discussion should be about 2027.
IX. What To Watch Next
Four things will tell you where this goes.
A written proposal. Until the Power Unit Advisory Committee receives draft text, this remains a pledge and an endorsement, not a rule change.
The final ADUO assessment after the Mexican Grand Prix. That measurement will set the official deficit going into the winter and determine what Honda is automatically entitled to for 2027 under the existing rules.
Honda’s leadership handover on October 1st and the tone of its first technical briefing afterward. If the company asks for more help itself, the politics change completely.
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And Alonso’s own announcement. The market for top drivers in 2027 is already moving, and Aston Martin needs clarity whether its project will have its lead driver.
The sport has been here before. In 2015, Honda was in a similar position and there was no ADUO. It took three painful years to become competitive. In 2014, Mercedes was dominant and there was no catch-up mechanism. ADUO exists because those experiences taught the sport that freezing an advantage helps no one. Whether it should be stretched further to help a late-arriving manufacturer tied to a 45-year-old champion is the question now in front of the FIA and its manufacturers.
It is a fair question to ask. It is also a difficult one to answer well, and it will require more than a promise in Madrid to settle.
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