FIA confirms decision on F1 Macarena wing ban after scary Max Verstappen crashes

'Red Bull overweegt verbod op Macarena-vleugel af te dwingen na eigen falen Verstappen' — Photo: © IMAGO

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FIA confirms decision on Macarena wing ban after scary Max Verstappen crashes

Will Crofty still get to shout about the 'Luke Littler wing'?

Chris Deeley Editor

Experienced sports writer covering F1 and other motorsports since 2023

Wednesday 19 August 2026 09:15

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The FIA has confirmed that it will not move to ban F1 teams from using 'Macarena' rear wings.

Ferrari and Red Bull are currently the only teams on the grid running the rotating rear wing in-race, with the latter briefly pausing the use of their own following two high-speed crashes for Max Verstappen.

The FIA requested information from both of those teams after Verstappen's back-to-back incidents, aiming to understand how the wings functioned by collecting data from the two teams who had used them in races.

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FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis has now confirmed that after looking at all the available information, the governing body will take no action against the wing concept.

FIA confirms Macarena wings are okay

Tombazis told media ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix: "When the first such design appeared, we wanted to make sure that it is entirely safe. And that consisted of various requirements, as in many complicated systems and engineering teams deploying what is called an FMEA analysis, which is failure mode."

He continued: "We went into quite a lot of dialogue to ensure that we felt that these designs were safe.

"Mainly, we wanted to be sure that there was never a risk of, let's say, a hydraulic failure, meaning that the wing is staying open and could not come back to a closed position.

"And also, we wanted to make sure that it does so in a very short amount of time. That it doesn't go through a very slow movement, which can then unsettle the car."

FIA director: Red Bull want their car to be safe

Tombazis also confirmed that Red Bull did not stop running the Macarena wing because of an FIA directive, although he did confirm that the issue of safety was discussed with them.

"So," he said, "we have been discussing these things, and on the basis of those discussions Red Bull wanted to do some more work.

"We haven't specifically told them 'no, you cannot race it', but they needed to do a bit more work to be sure, because ultimately, they also want their car to be safe. I don't think anyone wants their car to be crashed."

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