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Ignorance in 2025 is bliss for 2026?

Regarding Mercedes plight at understanding its car:-

Why it took so long for Mercedes to expose failed F1 car upgrade

The lack of correlation between the Mercedes simulator tools and the track has been apparent in the ground effect era.  In 2022 they persisted with designs in which the car was an unstable nightmare that had performance (according to the simulations) that they just needed to "unlock" (get the set-up window right for).  The problem was that the optimal set-up window lasted less than a track session.  Get it right for FP1 and it would be nowhere for FP2, and so on.


It is surprising it has taken so long for them to fix this, but then, equally it seems to be a pattern up and down the grid.  

RBR hit the GE era running with a car with the most usable window, of all.  Ferrari's F1-75 had a narrower set-up window within which it could outrun the RB18.    The following year, you'd think that Ferrari would widen their set-up window and get closer to RBR, but the opposite happened and RBR stomped the field with a concept that come the middle of the following season was being outpaced by McLaren who "came from nowhere".  

However for 2026 the aero balance is shifting away from ground effect and thus away from the need for a rigid platform.  Perhaps the teams have not rushed to plug their ground effect ignorance because it's going to be a diminished skillset?
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