As 2025 comes to a close, Formula 1 bids farewell to the ground effect cars of the last four seasons. Only Red Bull and McLaren had title glory to shout about.<\/p>\n
For Mercedes<\/a> and Ferrari, it was a case of highs and lows, which averaged out into unsuccessful title quests. Both Mercedes\u2019 George Russell and Ferrari\u2019s Charles Leclerc pointed to Red Bull\u2019s flying start in F1\u2019s ground effect era, and reflected on the years which followed ahead of switching focus to new opportunities under the revamped F1 2026 regulations.<\/p>\n F1 ground effect: The era of Red Bull and McLaren<\/p>\n When the new rules arrived in 2022, marking Formula 1\u2019s switch back to a ground effect aerodynamic philosophy, it was Red Bull and Ferrari which came flying out of the blocks.<\/p>\n Ferrari soon faded, as Max Verstappen and Red Bull became the dominant force.<\/p>\n It took until 2024 for McLaren to usurp Red Bull, as Ferrari narrowly missed out on the Constructors\u2019 title to McLaren that year. Verstappen, meanwhile, was denied a clean sweep of Drivers\u2019 titles in the F1 ground effect era by McLaren\u2019s Lando Norris, who goes into F1 2026 as the defending Drivers\u2019 Champion.<\/p>\n At the final round of 2025 in Abu Dhabi, Russell and Leclerc were asked what they believe their respective teams were missing under these regulations versus Red Bull and McLaren.<\/p>\n F1 2026 sees the introduction of heavily revamped chassis and engine regulations, in one of the biggest season to season shake-ups which the sport has ever seen. Russell and Leclerc were asked whether the struggles in this ruleset, impacts there confidence that Mercedes and\/or Ferrari can nail the new rules.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s been an extremely challenging set of regs, to be honest,\u201d said Russell.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd obviously, this second half of the year, Red Bull have been on a very high level. But if I were to answer that question at the summer break, I would have argued that we were at a similar level to Red Bull.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd if you compare that to \u201923 \u2013 Aston Martin were ahead of ourselves and Ferrari and dropped off, McLaren were nowhere and obviously just found something pretty spectacular.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, I can\u2019t really answer that question \u2013 what it is we\u2019ve missed.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s probably more where we started. I think we probably started in the wrong place and led ourselves down the wrong path and then had to revert. And clearly Red Bull, out of the blocks, had the least amount of porpoising in \u201922 and almost had a six or eight-month head start on everybody while we were trying to work that out.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, I don\u2019t think this regulation is really going to have any impact on the next set of regs, because the issues are going to be totally different.\u201d<\/p>\n More F1 2025 reflection from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n 10 things we say goodbye to in Formula 1 after 2025<\/a><\/p>\n The Big Fat Quiz of F1 2025: How much can you remember from this year?<\/a><\/p>\n While Russell did claim Canadian and Singapore GP victory in 2025, Ferrari ended the year winless.<\/p>\n \u201cI think for us there\u2019s not only one reason,\u201d said Leclerc of Ferrari\u2019s F1 ground effect struggles. \u201cThere are many reasons which, at different times, played a role.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the beginning of \u201922, we actually started off quite strongly, but we were struggling with porpoising, where Red Bull had a very stable platform. And they were actually quite a lot overweight, so as soon as they took off that weight, they were suddenly at the level where they\u2019ve been since then.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then for last year, we focused very early on next year\u2019s car, which I hope is a bet that will be a winning one. But for sure, it has some influence from the last two thirds of the season where we\u2019ve been struggling more than others because we didn\u2019t bring that many upgrades.<\/p>\n \u201cBut in general, it\u2019s just been a generation of car that was very, very difficult to understand. And what worked back at the factory \u2013 I think everybody has been surprised once or more times that when you bring it on track, it doesn\u2019t correlate exactly to what you were expecting from that part. And that was the challenge of it.<\/p>\n \u201cOther teams did better, especially McLaren and Red Bull.\u201d<\/p>\n Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n