McLaren’s plan for ‘not ready to race’ upside-down F1 rear wing revealed

McLaren’s “experimental rear wing” will not be ready to race at this weekend’s Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix. 

Reigning world champions McLaren revealed it will bring its own version of the so-called ‘upside-down’ or ‘Macarena’ rear wing to the eighth round of the 2026 season this weekend at the Red Bull Ring at Spielberg. 

But McLaren’s version of the unique rear wing design first pioneered by rivals Ferrari is “not ready to race”. Instead, it will be tested by Lando Norris during practice on Friday. 

Oscar Piastri confirmed McLaren’s plan for its own version of the rear wing design during Thursday’s FIA drivers’ press conference. 

“No, we won't race it. I believe it's on Lando's car tomorrow. It’s to test out, it's not ready to race at the moment,” Piastri said. 

“We’ve seen some of the creative solutions and they don't come without their challenges, clearly, so it won't be raced but useful to try it out.”

“It's not going to be easy for us. Yes, it has been a good track for us in the past, but there's no illusion for us that we're suddenly going to be amazing here and the team to beat. 

“We’re definitely not going to be. Hopefully we can get close and kind of be in the position that we have been in at certain points where we can capitalise on dramas for others. 

“But yeah, I think to be able to do it on merit or pure pace is going to be a bit of a stretch. But I'd like to be happily surprised.”

McLaren’s approach is similar to that of Ferrari, who first debuted its design in pre-season testing in Bahrain. 

Ferrari conducted a further trial during practice in China, before racing with the novel rear wing for the first time in Miami, where Red Bull also debuted a larger version of the rear wing design. 

Piastri admitted McLaren needs to match the rate of development shown by its rivals if it is to fight at the very front of the F1 grid this season. 

“We know that we're lacking performance and I think Canada in the race and especially Monaco kind of highlighted where some of our struggles lie. We know we have a bit of a deficit everywhere,” the Australian explained. 

“We don't really have any clear strengths where we're really strong, but we're not kind of terribly bad anywhere either. In some ways that's good, in some ways that's bad. 

“To catch Mercedes and, we’ll see whether Ferrari maintain their form as well, we need to put some new bits on the car, we need to make it faster, and we need to do it quicker than everyone else because at this point in the year and this point of the regs, everybody's coming with upgrades quickly, so we know we need to improve.”