McLaren confirms ‘rotating rear wing’ breakthrough after track evaluation

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has confirmed the squad’s experimental ‘rotating rear wing’ has been signed off and will feature on the car at forthcoming races.

Track testing during Friday practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix saw the wing pass mechanical and aerodynamic evaluations, though opted against racing the design at the Hungaroring.

McLaren rear wing approved as Andrea Stella confirms successful F1 test

Ferrari’s radical active aerodynamic solution has seen both Red Bull and McLaren look to develop their own iterations. Dubbed by Ferrari team boss as the ‘Macarena wing’, the upper flap inverts when straight-line mode is activated.

By running the flap upside down, the design induces a small amount of lift rather than just shedding downforce. This flip reduces rolling resistance and drag, thereby improving aerodynamic efficiency while making the power unit’s job easier down the straights.

Ferrari pioneered the solution during pre-season testing, with Lewis Hamilton running it in practice at the Chinese Grand Prix before its competitive race introduction in Barcelona. Red Bull quickly introduced its own variation, though the design has been temporarily shelved following two high-speed incidents for Max Verstappen in Austria and Great Britain.

McLaren became the third team to bring a rotating design to the track, debuting its own variation during FP1 in Hungary.

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“It’s been a complicated project, which was no surprise,” Stella said when asked about the design by PlanetF1.com.

One of the critical technical hurdles associated with the wing is managing aerodynamic flow reattachment when the wing actuates back into its default position, as FIA regulations govern actuation times.

According to Stella, the track data gathered in Budapest mirrored the team’s pre-event simulations, allowing the design to be formally signed off for upcoming race weekends.

“It’s been a positive sign-off of this concept, and we look forward now to introducing this concept, at some future events,” he confirmed.

While Ferrari’s flap flips backwards, McLaren’s concept rolls forward, similar to the approach taken by Red Bull.

McLaren and Red Bull landed on a similar solution despite significant different facilities in their development infrastructure.

While Red Bull continues to work using its historic Bedford facility, McLaren opened its state-of-the-art wind tunnel ahead of the F1 2024 season – a four-year project that saw the squad bring aerodynamic development back on site after using Toyota’s Cologne facility since 2010.

However, Stella clarified that McLaren’s facility was not the sole reason for the wing’s success.

“I don’t think the wind tunnel is a major factor in terms of determining the aerodynamic behaviour in reattachment,” Stella argued.

“You can use some other tools for that, and then the most important tool, especially when you have these sort of complicated projects, even from an aerodynamic point of view, remains what you observe at the track.

“It was important for us to acquire data via track side because you would have never relied on a wind tunnel only for such a delicate project.”

Given the efficiency gains the solution offers on straights, high-speed venues like Monza and Baku represent prime targets for McLaren to debut the device in race conditions.

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