Mercedes’ Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin has opened up about the significant challenges his team faced following the FIA’s stricter enforcement of flexible wing regulations through Technical Directive 018. The Silver Arrows were forced into substantial design changes to meet the revised compliance tests, sacrificing performance in the process during a crucial phase of their 2025 campaign.
FIA clampdown forces major Mercedes redesign
The governing body introduced enhanced static load tests in 2025 aimed at limiting front and rear wing deflection under aerodynamic pressure. The most stringent iteration of these tests came into force during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, creating a watershed moment for several teams’ development programmes. While paddock speculation suggested McLaren might struggle to adapt their aerodynamic philosophy, the Woking squad navigated the regulatory shift without obvious performance loss. Mercedes, by contrast, found themselves scrambling to modify components that had been integral to their car concept.
Shovlin acknowledged the disruption caused by the mid-season technical directive: “It took us some time to adjust after those rules came in at Barcelona.” The admission underscores how deeply the previous aerodynamic approach had been embedded in the W16’s design architecture. The team’s engineering resources were diverted from pure performance development to compliance work, creating a competitive disadvantage that manifested in lap time deficits across multiple circuit types.
Underlying handling weaknesses exposed by rule change
Beyond the immediate compliance challenges, Shovlin revealed that Mercedes had been masking fundamental handling limitations through their aerodynamic approach. The car exhibited persistent difficulties rotating through low-speed corners, a weakness that became more pronounced once the regulatory constraints were applied. “We were struggling to get the car to turn effectively in slow corners,” the engineering chief explained. “Some of our rear tyre temperature issues stemmed from drivers needing to use throttle application to assist rotation.”
This technical compromise placed additional thermal stress on the rear Pirelli compounds whilst limiting the drivers’ ability to attack corner entries with confidence. The flexible aerodynamic elements had provided a partial workaround by optimising the car’s attitude through corner phases, but once the FIA’s enhanced deflection tests removed this avenue, Mercedes faced the full extent of their mechanical handling deficit. The engineering team was left with no choice but to fundamentally rethink their suspension geometry and aerodynamic balance philosophy.
McLaren’s suspension philosophy provides template
Facing a clear performance gap to the front-runners, Mercedes embarked on a detailed study of rival technical solutions, with particular focus on McLaren’s race-winning MCL39. Shovlin’s team paid close attention to the papaya cars’ rear suspension kinematics, identifying how their competitors maximised platform stability through corner phases. “When you don’t have the fastest car, you look at who does and what they’re doing,” Shovlin stated. “We examined McLaren’s rear suspension setup and could see what they were trying to achieve with anti-lift geometry to maximise how low they could keep the rear through corners.”
The observation provided valuable direction for Mercedes’ subsequent development work, though implementing similar concepts required extensive wind tunnel validation and track testing. The team’s engineers recognised they had neglected certain fundamental principles that had served them well during their dominant 2020-2021 campaigns. “We clearly didn’t put enough effort into preserving the strong points from the 2020-2021 cars,” Shovlin conceded, suggesting the team had been seduced by alternative development paths that ultimately proved less robust.
What this means going forward
Mercedes’ experience with TD018 illustrates how regulatory interventions can expose underlying design weaknesses that teams have successfully worked around through creative engineering solutions. The episode serves as a cautionary tale about building car concepts around potentially vulnerable technical areas. For 2025 and beyond, teams must ensure their aerodynamic performance doesn’t rely on components operating at the edge of regulatory interpretation, given the FIA’s demonstrated willingness to introduce stricter compliance tests mid-season.
The Silver Arrows have since integrated lessons from their suspension philosophy analysis into their development roadmap, aiming to recover the low-speed corner performance that proved so costly during the post-Barcelona phase of the season. With Lewis Hamilton now at Ferrari and young Andrea Kimi Antonelli partnering George Russell, the team will hope these fundamental lessons have been absorbed ahead of the new technical cycle, ensuring they don’t repeat the same strategic missteps that allowed rivals to gain a decisive advantage.
