Ferrari removes daring ‘Macarena’ rear wing after Shanghai practice
Ferrari’s experimental ‘Macarena’ rear wing made a brief appearance on the SF-26s during Friday practice ahead of Sprint Qualifying in Shanghai, only for the team to remove it after the session.
The wing, unveiled during pre-season testing in Bahrain last month, earned its nickname from team principal Fred Vasseur due to the unusual movement of the rear flap when activated. Unlike traditional DRS designs, which flip the top flap back partially, the Macarena wing rotates the upper elements through a full inversion.
PlanetF1.com tech editor Matt Somerfield explained: “The Ferrari solution appears to rotate around a central pivot point between the two upper elements but, rather than stop in a semi DRS-style position, the Ferrari wing continues to rotate, flipping completely over onto its back.”
Although the team trialled it during testing—with Lewis Hamilton completing five laps on the penultimate day—Ferrari opted for the conventional DRS-style wing at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
The Macarena wing appeared on both SF-26s during FP1 in Shanghai, though Ferrari chose not to run back-to-back testing on both cars. The team later removed the design, reportedly because running it in Shanghai posed a “pointless” risk given the gap to Mercedes. Ferrari plans to continue development and may reintroduce it at a later race.
Hamilton admitted the timing of the wing’s debut may have been premature:
“I don’t really know why we went back. I think we rushed to get it here and it was not supposed to be on the car until, I think it was, race four or five.”
Hamilton pleased with SF-26 despite early Macarena wing experiment
Lewis Hamilton reflected positively on Friday’s FP1 in Shanghai, despite Ferrari removing their experimental ‘Macarena’ rear wing after the session.
“So they did a great job to rush it here and we only had two of them. It was maybe a little bit premature, so we took it off. The car was still great,” Hamilton said.
“We’ll work to try to bring it back when it’s ready.”
Hamilton went on to qualify fourth for the Sprint race, six-tenths behind pole-sitter George Russell, with teammate Charles Leclerc sixth quickest, 0.4 seconds further back.
“Yeah, really pleased with the session,” he said. “My team did a great job, my engineers did a fantastic job to turn the car around because FP1 was a tricky session with that spin.
The car generally felt great, just we are losing a lot of time on the straights. We’ve got a lot of work to do back in Maranello to improve on power.
I think the car feels great and we can compete with them through corners, but when you are down on power, that’s just the way it is.”
Hamilton’s comments highlight Ferrari’s focus on refining the SF-26’s performance and their intent to reintroduce the Macarena wing once fully developed.