{"id":370660,"date":"2025-12-26T19:59:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T19:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/370660\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T19:59:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T19:59:10","slug":"why-mercedes-flexed-its-wings-in-2025-and-how-it-responded-to-the-fia-clampdown-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/370660\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Mercedes flexed its wings in 2025 and how it responded to the FIA clampdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mercedes<\/a> had its fair share of development issues over the course of Formula 1\u2019s ground-effect era, but after adopting flexible wings to help get on top of its troublesome car the team says it needed \u201ca bit of time to adapt\u201d once the FIA clamped down.<\/p>\n

After scoring eight successive Formula 1 constructors\u2019 titles, Mercedes kicked off the ground-effect era on the back foot in 2022. Its zero-pod concept was more susceptible to the porpoising phenomenon, and it was scrapping to catch up over successive seasons.<\/p>\n

One solution that the team explored to improve the performance of its F1 racer was flexible wings, which trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin says \u201cworked quite well\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last couple of years, we were struggling to get the car to turn effectively in slow corners,\u201d Shovlin explained. \u201cSome of our rear tyre temperature issues actually came from the fact that the drivers were having to use the throttle to help rotation. That led us into a useful development path, allowing the front wing to bend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat helped in low speed while giving a stable rear in high speed, which worked well. However, the FIA brought in regulations this year that limited that quite significantly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Formula 1\u2019s governing body, the FIA, rolled out a clampdown on flexible wings over the course of the 2025 season. The move restricted the elasticity that was permitted in front and rear wings, with the toughest tests coming in over the Spanish Grand Prix weekend.<\/p>\n

\"Mercedes <\/p>\n

Mercedes W16 technical detail<\/p>\n

Photo by: Antonia Vandersee \/ circuitpics.de<\/p>\n

The tests impacted each team differently, with some predicting that it would clip McLaren<\/a>\u2019s wings and end its dominance \u2013 but this prediction failed to materialise. The new tests did, however, hamper Mercedes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took us a bit of time to adapt after those rules came in at Barcelona,\u201d Shovlin added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re not the quickest car, you look at who is and what they\u2019re doing. We looked at McLaren\u2019s rear suspension and could see what they were trying to do with anti-lift to maximise how low they could hold the rear into a corner.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issue that led Mercedes to peruse the flexible wing idea was just one of a myriad that the German team faced when F1\u2019s rules changed in 2022. And while Shovlin doesn\u2019t go so far as to say Mercedes \u201cunderestimated\u201d the change, he admits that it \u201cdidn\u2019t put enough effort\u201d into some aspects of the regulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing into these regulations, we wouldn\u2019t say we underestimated the challenge of getting a good through-corner balance \u2013 stability on entry, rotation at the apex, and good traction on exit \u2013 but we clearly didn\u2019t put enough effort into carrying over the strengths of the 2020\u20132021 cars,\u201d Shovlin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, everyone is doing similar speeds through corners. The difference is how well your balance suits a given circuit, which is what\u2019s separating teams at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mercedes is now gearing up for F1’s next regulation shift in 2026 when new rules will dramatically alter the cars and their power units. While Shovlin admitted that the team\u00a0still had \u201ca lot of work to do\u201d, he conceded that the impending change was now \u201cless daunting than a month ago\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

We want your opinion!<\/p>\n

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?<\/p>\n

Take our 5 minute survey.<\/a><\/p>\n

– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mercedes had its fair share of development issues over the course of Formula 1\u2019s ground-effect era, but after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,1881,82,158491],"class_list":{"0":"post-370660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-mercedes","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-why-mercedes-flexed-its-wings-in-2025-and-how-it-responded-to-the-fia-clampdown"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}