McLaren tests inverted rear wing in Austria

McLaren will run an experimental inverted rear wing throughout Friday practice at the Austrian Grand Prix as it evaluates whether a concept first highlighted by Ferrari, and later adopted by Red Bull, can become a race option later this season.

The team confirmed in its Austria preview that the “experimental rear wing” will be used across the Free Practice sessions at the Red Bull Ring. The design is understood to be an upside-down rear wing concept, but it is not expected to be used in Sunday’s race.

The idea first drew attention in pre-season testing in Bahrain, when Ferrari appeared with a rear wing whose main plane rotates so the upper element flips when the low-drag straight-line mode is activated. Ferrari did not race that solution until Miami, where Red Bull also introduced its own interpretation.

Rob Marshall, McLaren chief designer, said Ferrari’s original version immediately prompted questions up and down the paddock. “Everyone saw that and thought, ‘oh, okay, yeah, that's all right. But [are] we sure that's legal?’ Yeah, it is! Okay,” he said at an event at McLaren’s Woking factory in April.

Marshall said that reaction is part of a wider process in Formula 1, where teams study rival concepts closely rather than dismissing them as car-specific. “It is a common phrase in F1 that basically copying stuff doesn't work because what works on one car doesn't work on another,” he said. “Actually, that's not necessarily true.” He pointed to double diffusers as an example of an idea that was copied across the grid and still worked.

McLaren’s Austria package is not limited to the wing alone. Neil Houldey, McLaren technical director, said the team has also brought “minor detail updates around the car’s rear corners” as part of what he called its “season-long development pathway.”

Houldey said the focus remains on finding “refinements that add performance and lap time to the car,” with the rear wing trial serving as a data-gathering exercise before any decision is made. Once the results are reviewed back at the factory, the design itself or a derivative of it could be considered for a competitive debut later in the year.