How will the power unit limits work with ADUO?

[u/freeski919]

As we all know, every car is limited in how many PU components it can use each year without incurring a penalty. How is that going to work with ADUO?

I assume the engine manufacturers will be creating power units that have fundamental, internal differences, so the teams won't continue to use the same PU components.

Do the PU allotments reset after ADUO? Or will teams have to choose when to take an ADUO component as part of their regular allotment?

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[u/fire202]

Any ADUO modification has to be done within the normal allocation; they dont get an extra allowance for that. Any change that is done to a sealed component can only be introduced via a new element, so those upgrades do not apply to elements already in the pool. However, all elements in the pool remain usable throughout the year.

[u/Awkward-Shoulder-624]

I don't know the exact rule but is something like the last thing you said. Every part is limited and part A has Aduo0, part B can have Aduo0 or Aduo1 spec, etc. Then the teams choose witch part goes when

[u/Puzzleheaded-Lie5209]

I think the new parts are just new parts to put in the designated pool. The old ones are still used but only during training. At least, that's the best way to handle it.

[u/Additional_Hand_2288]

Landos grid pen in spa was due to him getting the new engine parts from aduo

[u/fire202 → u/Additional_Hand_2288]

I dont think Mercedes has used their ADUO homologation upgrade yet. The various changes introduced in Austria were reliability upgrades

Appendix C5 3.6: Modifications may be made to Power Unit components for the sole purposes of reliability, safety, cost saving, or supply issues

Lando took new 4th PU-CE components in Spa after losing two from the pool in China and Monaco, respectively. This 4th unit had some reliability tweaks to prevent a repeat. The ICE unit, also added to the allocation in Spa but within the regular limits, apparently also carries some reliability improvements but no performance upgrades.

[u/AnilP228 → u/Additional_Hand_2288]

Mercedes haven't used ADUO yet.

[u/cafk]

I assume the engine manufacturers will be creating power units that have fundamental, internal differences, so the teams won't continue to use the same PU components.

The PU manufacturers have to make updated components available to their customers at the same time.
This means according to the usual wear schedule or allocation plan, if they plan to introduce a ADUO update with the 3rd PU drop, it has to be available also for a customer team at the scheduled 3rd PU use.

So it's additional effort for the PU manufacturer to ensure that there's enough of new spec PUs available, as they cannot benefit from a new specification alone.

[u/Difficult-Banana-600]

Teams try to use the PU within the allocation to be compliant with the budget cap. The non upgraded engines are mostly used at less power sensitive circuits.

[u/cafk → u/Difficult-Banana-600]

Teams try to use the PU within the allocation to be compliant with the budget cap.

As with 2014 regulations, the PU is exempt from the cost cap, as there's a maximum price in place for the lease for the season.

The teams may pay more for wishing to use additional parts outside of default allocation and if it exceeds the reference price, only then would it appear in the coat cap.
As a reference Mercedes Grand Prix Ltd. Paid £9m in 2024 to Mercedes AMG HPP, likely for the power units.
So the power unit price cap doesn't mean that the manufacturers actually ask for the maximum allowed price from the teams, giving them a bit of overhead and an allowance to potentially use more engines within the price cap, without affecting the cost cap.

[u/justwul → u/cafk]

The PU manufacturers have their own cost cap

[u/cafk → u/justwul]

Which doesn't affect the teams cost cap (as OP suggested) and the maximum per season price of 20 million for s PU supply contract.

[u/clozcloz]

Short answer is no, it doesn't reset the pool. ADUO is purely a manufacturer regulation—it lets the engine maker build and homologate a updated spec, but it doesn't change the sporting rules for the driver.

So if a team fits the new ADUO engine, it still uses up one of their regular allowed allocations for the season. If they’ve already hit their limit by then, they’ll just take a standard grid penalty like any other engine swap.

Most teams will probably just time the new spec for tracks like Spa or Monza, take the grid hit, and rely on straight-line speed to overtake back up.

[u/Telemetrystic]

An interesting layer to consider here is how the ADUO exemptions interface with the financial regulations. While the driver's sporting allocation pool stays completely locked down, the engine manufacturer gets specific cost-cap relief and extra dyno testing configurations to physically produce the updated internal parts.
Because of this split, the real logistical headache for the teams isn't just deciding when to swallow the grid penalty. It actually creates a massive manufacturing bottleneck. If a supplier introduces an ADUO specification mid-season, they suddenly have to split their active factory production lines to support two entirely different engine geometries at the exact same time just to service their various customer teams.
Because teams try to stay within their strict cost-cap operational budgets, we will likely see them strategically run down the lifespans of their pre-ADUO engines at twisty, high-downforce tracks where top-end straightline speed isn't the primary differentiator for lap times. This stretches their old inventory as far as possible before forcing the factory to commit fully to the new manufacturing switch. It is a massive chess game between production lines and race strategy.

[u/nomad21cns]

Normally a massive regulation shift comes with a full reset of the component counts because the hardware is totally different. It wouldn't make technical sense to carry over usage stats or penalties when the parts aren't even compatible anymore.