Ferrari sticks with ‘macarena’ rear wing despite Lewis Hamilton’s high-speed spin in China. Ferrari pushes ahead with innovative ‘Macarena’ wing after initial tests.

The ‘Macarena’ wing has just been introduced, Ferrari set to invest time and resources in its development

After making its debut during pre-season testing in Bahrain, Ferrari decided to run the ‘Macarena’ wing on the cars of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc during the free practice sessions of the Chinese Grand Prix, with the aim of evaluating its behavior ahead of upcoming races. Unfortunately, as soon as the seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton tried to push a bit harder, he lost control of the car, spinning in a rather sudden and aggressive manner.

Ferrari determined to continue with the ‘Macarena’ wing, China only the first step

The incident led Ferrari to remove the wing from its program for the remainder of the Chinese Grand Prix weekend. However, according to reports from Motorsport.com, Ferrari has no intention of abandoning the project—quite the opposite. The ‘Macarena’ wing appears to be only at its first stage of development, a newly introduced concept that is still taking its initial steps.

The main issue seems to be related to the closing time of the rotating flap, which is currently slower than that of the flaps mounted on the front wing. When Ferrari drivers command the active aerodynamics to switch to a high-downforce configuration, the front wing elements close earlier than the ‘Macarena’ wing. This creates an imbalance that can generate handling problems which the driver is unable to fully compensate for through driving alone.

According to Motorsport.com, Ferrari’s innovation is expected to return to the track during the Japanese Grand Prix, where it will undergo further fine-tuning and testing. The Scuderia is prepared to invest both time and resources into this project, a clear indication that the anticipated performance gains are significant enough to justify such an effort from the men and women in Maranello.

Formula 1 therefore moves further into an era of complex aero-elasticity and active systems and mastering these transitions will be key to finding the ultimate lap time. Ferrari’s persistence with the ‘macarena’ wing suggests they believe they have found a potential “silver bullet” for their high-speed stability, provided they can sync the front and rear systems perfectly. The development race continues and the focus now shifts to Japan to see if the Prancing Horse can tame its latest technical beast.