First look! Mercedes active front wing design
Mercedes active front wing in testing
Mercedes was the first team to run an active front wing during the post-season Abu Dhabi test, the W16 featuring a very rudimentary design.
According to Formula 1 tyre suppliers Pirelli, Ferrari will use a design of their own later in the day.
Mercedes’ basic active front wing on display
The Formula 1 teams are laying down the laps at the Yas Marina Circuit on Tuesday for the one-day post-season test.
All 10 teams will feature two cars, one of which will be the standard F1 2025 machinery driven by a young driver.
The other car will be specially adapted to simulate what might be expected of the 2026 cars, as Formula 1 moves away from ground-effect aerodynamics to run smaller, lighter challengers that utilise active aerodynamics. The downforce levels will also be different, so this test allows Pirelli to gather data on its 2026 tyres.
It had Mercedes trailing a rudimentary active front wing design.
The moveable front wing will have two active flaps that will work in conjunction with the rear wing, also using active aerodynamics, to ensure the cars are well balanced whichever mode they are in.
Mercedes ran a crude design on Kimi Antonelli’s mule car in the morning, the design featuring tubing from an internal system housed within the nosecone.
In order to give Pirelli the best data possible from the tests, the teams were permitted to fit the mule cars with the active systems.
Read next: Sergio Perez issues blunt one-word response to Max Verstappen title defeat
