McLaren 'Disappointed' Not to Adopt Rotating Rear Wing as Fast as Ferrari

McLaren Formula 1 technical director Neil Houldey has admitted the team was "disappointed" not to have picked up on the rotating rear wing concept as quickly as Ferrari. The Woking-based squad is now developing its own version, expected to debut after the summer break.

Innovation comes in all shapes and sizes as F1 teams delve into the new 2026 regulations. When Ferrari debuted a striking rear wing in Bahrain testing that rotated 180 degrees between cornering and straight-line modes, it captured the imagination—not just of fans, but also of rival designers who had to reassess whether they had missed a trick to reduce straight-line drag.

Red Bull Racing has since rolled out its own version, albeit with a different concept, which had to be revised after two incidents for Max Verstappen in Austria and Silverstone. McLaren followed, but also had to make numerous tweaks to get the design working as intended. A planned test in Austria practice was abandoned after the team uncovered issues in the garage. Following further development, they trialled the rear wing to good effect in Hungary as a test item, aiming to debut the design after the shutdown.

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Neil Houldey's Acknowledgment

McLaren's tech director said the team realised it had left something on the table as soon as it saw Ferrari's winter testing. "We were disappointed not to pick that up as quickly as Ferrari did and then Red Bull," Houldey told Motorsport.com. "As soon as we saw it, we realised there was an opportunity there and we looked into it for a while. But there are all these big performance upgrades on offer for the wing, so it wasn't our prime project, and we were working on it in the background. We did lab testing, brought it to FP1 in Austria, and we found an issue with it in the garage, so we took it back to the factory."

He added, "We think we've now found a concept that works and we've created a reliable solution. We understand some of the aerodynamic risks with doing it." Verstappen's two frightening spins in Austria and Silverstone, triggered by Red Bull's first iteration of the rear wing not closing quickly enough, further underlined that the rotating rear wing concept is not easy to perfect and carries risks that need to be properly understood.

"It's the fact that the activation time might be slightly longer, the fact that it takes a little bit more time for the aerodynamic load to come back when you reactivate," Houldey explained, confirming McLaren's design is still on track for a race debut in the near future. McLaren is particularly chasing better aerodynamic efficiency, which the rear wing could contribute to. "We looked at it whilst developing rear wings for performance, generally. We're now trying to find a way of introducing that concept into our new rear wing generation, which should be happening in the next few races," he concluded.