Why Mercedes flexed its wings in 2025 and how it responded to the FIA clampdown

Mercedes had its fair share of development issues over the course of Formula 1’s ground-effect era, but after adopting flexible wings to help get on top of its troublesome car the team says it needed “a bit of time to adapt” once the FIA clamped down.

After scoring eight successive Formula 1 constructors’ 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.

One solution that the team explored to improve the performance of its F1 racer was flexible wings, which trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin says “worked quite well”.

“Over the last couple of years, we were struggling to get the car to turn effectively in slow corners,” Shovlin explained. “Some 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.

“That 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.”

Formula 1’s 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.

Mercedes W16 technical detail

Photo by: Antonia Vandersee / circuitpics.de

The tests impacted each team differently, with some predicting that it would clip McLaren’s wings and end its dominance – but this prediction failed to materialise. The new tests did, however, hamper Mercedes. 

“It took us a bit of time to adapt after those rules came in at Barcelona,” Shovlin added.

“When you’re not the quickest car, you look at who is and what they’re doing. We looked at McLaren’s 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.”

The issue that led Mercedes to peruse the flexible wing idea was just one of a myriad that the German team faced when F1’s rules changed in 2022. And while Shovlin doesn’t go so far as to say Mercedes “underestimated” the change, he admits that it “didn’t put enough effort” into some aspects of the regulations.

“Coming into these regulations, we wouldn’t say we underestimated the challenge of getting a good through-corner balance – stability on entry, rotation at the apex, and good traction on exit – but we clearly didn’t put enough effort into carrying over the strengths of the 2020–2021 cars,” Shovlin said.

“Now, everyone is doing similar speeds through corners. The difference is how well your balance suits a given circuit, which is what’s separating teams at the moment.”

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 still had “a lot of work to do”, he conceded that the impending change was now “less daunting than a month ago”.