– McLaren tested the rotating rear wing for the first time in the first free practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix. The traditional team from Woking admits that it only started working on the design after the winter test in Bahrain, where Ferrari first presented the unusual “Macarena” wing.
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Technical director Neil Houldey explains that McLaren immediately realized they had missed an opportunity. “We were disappointed that we didn’t recognize it as quickly as Ferrari and then Red Bull,” the Brit says in response to a question from Motorsport.com, a sister platform of Motorsport-Total.com in the Motorsport Network.
“As soon as we saw it, it became clear to us that there was a possibility there, and we spent some time on it. But with the rear wing, there are all these big performance upgrades possible, so it wasn’t our main project and we worked on it in the background.”
“We conducted tests in the lab, used it in the first practice in Austria, and found a problem in the garage there. So we took it back to the factory,” Houldey recalls the original plan to use the rotating rear wing in Spielberg.
McLaren develops a “reliable solution”
With a delay, the McLaren variant was now used for the first time in Hungary. “We believe we have now found a concept that works and developed a reliable solution. We understand the aerodynamic risks involved.”
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That the rear wing is not entirely without risk was already proven by Red Bull this year: after two spins by Max Verstappen in Spielberg and Silverstone, the team refrained from using it in Belgium and revised the concept again.
“It’s about the activation time possibly being a bit longer and that it takes a bit more time for the aerodynamic load to come back when you activate the system again,” Houldey explained the difficulties with the rotating rear wing.
Rotating McLaren rear wing to make race debut soon
At the same time, the technical director confirms that McLaren’s current design is still on track to be used on the race car in the near future. The team from Woking is particularly working on improving aerodynamic efficiency – and the rear wing could contribute exactly to that.
“We looked at it as part of the development of rear wings for performance in general,” says Houldey. “Now we are trying to find a way to integrate this concept into our new generation of rear wings. That should happen in the next races.”
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