– McLaren will finally mount the rotating “Macarena” rear wing on the car at the Formula 1 race in Hungary, which was actually supposed to debut in Spielberg. At that time, its deployment was postponed indefinitely because problems were discovered in the garage. In Budapest, however, the part is now to be tested – only to be packed away again after practice.
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McLaren confirms that the rear wing “is not intended for full deployment at this race or the following race in the Netherlands”. However, if the test in Hungary is successful, the inverted rear wing could debut at a later date on track-efficiency-sensitive circuits such as Monza or Baku.
However, the world champion racing team will also bring new parts to Hungary that are intended to remain on the car throughout the weekend – and beyond: After a first major overhaul at the Miami and Montreal weekends and several smaller modifications since then, McLaren is bringing a larger update package for the 2026 car to the track.
This builds on a redesigned underbody and “further aerodynamic parts”.
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“We have an upgrade package with us this weekend, and in such a competitive season, every development is important. It will therefore be great to gain a better understanding of how these parts work in free practice,” says Randy Singh, Senior Director of Racing at McLaren.
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“Our goal is to maximize everything available, carry the positive momentum into the summer break, and put ourselves in the best possible starting position for the second half of the season.”
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Regarding McLaren’s plan to give the car more aerodynamic downforce and increase its efficiency, team principal Andrea Stella recently said: “Development in the factory has been very strong for several months. This led to the upgrades we had in Miami. And now there’s another round of upgrades for Hungary and then after the summer break.”
Can McLaren catch up again?
McLaren started the season in decent form but couldn’t keep pace with the dominant Mercedes team, while Ferrari brought out an impressive series of upgrades that enabled both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton to win a race. Red Bull has also significantly increased the performance of its RB22.
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For this reason, McLaren’s next upgrade package couldn’t come soon enough. “It’s difficult to reach the performance level that Ferrari and Mercedes are currently operating at, but hopefully from Hungary onwards we will see a slight acceleration in our competitiveness,” said Stella.
“We now have a clear development direction, but in some areas of the car, it has taken a few months to implement. So, we should see the first results of this approach in Hungary and then hopefully more and more upgrades for the rest of the season.”
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