F1 News: Watch out Lewis Hamilton, McLaren are ready to copy genius Ferrari innovation

Hamilton looking cheekily at Norris who is smiling, stood under the same umbrella in Ferrari and McLaren kit respectively — Photo: © IMAGO

McLaren F1

Watch out Lewis Hamilton, McLaren are ready to copy genius Ferrari idea

Will this help McLaren to catch up to their rivals?

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Friday 26 June 2026 13:57

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F1 has always been about taking the best ideas that others have thought of and adding it to your own car. But it is surprising, and in equal parts nice, to see that in an age of such complex rules, that is just as prevalent as ever in 2026.

Ferrari's genius rear wing design concept baffled fans, pundits and teams alike when they debuted it during pre-season testing in Bahrain, before using it properly for the first time during practice for the Chinese Grand Prix.

Nicknamed the 'Macarena', the rear wing was designed to flip in on itself, creating a much wider gap to what we have been used to in F1 since DRS was introduced back in 2011.

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This year, there is no DRS, but there is an active aerodynamics system which sees both the rear and front wings open when straight mode is activated on the straights.

At the Miami Grand Prix, Red Bull also introduced a similarly wide rear wing opening to Ferrari, with team principal Laurent Mekies adamant that they had not copied the Scuderia, and instead had actually come up with the concept during the winter.

Red Bull's concept was arguably even more radical than Ferrari's original Macarena, and now it seems that another one of their rivals have adopted the idea.

'McLarena' a Ferrari copy?

McLaren are set to unveil their own 'upside down' rear wing design at the Austrian Grand Prix, with the team confirming that they will be experimenting with it during both FP1 and FP2 at the Red Bull Ring on Friday.

Ferrari's 'Macarena' rear wing raised many eyebrows.

However, The Race is reporting that it remains very much in its developmental phase, and will not be ready for actual races until later in the year.

Speaking at an event back in April, McLaren chief designer Rob Marshall said about Ferrari's Macarena wing: "Everyone saw that and thought, 'Oh, okay, yeah, that's all right. But [are] we sure that's legal?' Yeah, it is! Ok".

He then went on to say: "We kind of look at everything. Some things are closed off to us quite quickly when you look at the regulations, others remain open.

"Others are kind of limited to you by other architectural changes you may have made, or by things to do with the engine.

"But ultimately, we do analyse everything to a certain extent. Some things go as far as being wind tunnel tested or CFD tested. Others are more kind of thought experiments we do on them to see whether we think that they would be good or bad for us."

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