Why Ferrari removed unique ‘Macarena’ wing after China practice

Ferrari has taken off its radical rotating rear wing design following practice at Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix.

The Scuderia ran the unique innovation - which has been dubbed as the ‘Macarena’ wing - for the first time during a grand prix weekend in Friday’s sole practice session in Shanghai, having initially debuted the device during the second pre-season test in Bahrain. 

Both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton had the ‘upside down’ rear wing attached to their SF-26 cars throughout the opening hour of running in China, as they finished fifth and sixth fastest.

Leclerc was eight tenths off the pace set by Mercedes’ George Russell, while seven-time world champion was 1.388s adrift as both Ferraris finished behind the McLaren pair.

Ferrari’s innovative rear wing features a flap that opens for the straight-line mode by rotating on its axis by 180 degrees.

After running it in practice, Ferrari has elected to remove the novel rear wing ahead of sprint qualifying, suggesting it didn’t quite work as the team hoped.

Sky Sports F1's Ted Kravitz reported Ferrari replaced the rear wing due to reliability concerns. 

"We were all excited about the Ferrari rear wing but it was inevitable they would take it off! They are not running it for the rest of the weekend," Kravitz said. 

"Not because they think it gives them 5kph more speed in a straight line but they are not sure it is reliable enough to make it through the rest of the weekend. A lot of load goes through it as it flips but they are not 100 per cent certain it will be reliable."

A 'premature' debut 

Hamilton described the debut of Ferrari's radical rear wing as being "a little bit premature, revealing it was not supposed to be unleashed until "race four or five". 

“I don't really know why we went back on it," he said. 

“We rushed it to get it here and it was not supposed to be on the cars until I think it was like race four or five or something like that.

“They did a great job to rush it here, and we only had two of them and it was maybe a little bit premature, so we took it off.

“The car was still great. We'll work to try and bring it back when it's ready.”