Red Bull Powertrains has responded to recent talk about a possible “engine trick” on its 2026 Formula 1 power unit, saying it is confident that everything it’s doing is legal under the rules.
The team’s technical boss Ben Hodgkinson described the debate over their design as mostly “noise” and insisted they have taken their engine’s compression ratio right up to the limits allowed by the regulations.
Some rival teams have raised questions about whether Red Bull (and Mercedes) might be exploiting a loophole in the new 16:1 compression ratio rules by running higher numbers in practice, but Hodgkinson said Red Bull is sure it complies with how the FIA measures and enforces the rule.
He suggested that critics are making a bigger issue out of it than necessary, and believes most teams will be operating near the same limits when all is said and done.