Red Bull wing failures put FIA on alert for Spa

After Max Verstappen crashed in Austria qualifying and again late in the British Grand Prix because Red Bull’s rotating rear wing did not close properly, the FIA has stepped up its scrutiny of the “Macarena” concept ahead of Spa.

Red Bull confirmed the two incidents came from two different rear-wing defects that left the system at least partially open. The first struck in Q3 at the Austrian Grand Prix, when the actuator failed to close the wing correctly through a corner and Verstappen lost a major chunk of rear downforce before spinning off. The second followed at Silverstone a few laps from the finish, where another failure sent him off at high speed at Stowe when he had still appeared on course for a strong result despite engine and balance issues across the weekend.

That has turned what was meant to be a straight-line performance gain into a serious liability for Red Bull. Ferrari first brought attention to the rotating rear-wing idea in Bahrain testing and then raced it from Miami, while Red Bull introduced its own version that same weekend. Laurent Mekies, speaking for Red Bull, said the team had been working on the design since late 2025. But while Ferrari’s version has so far avoided comparable race-weekend failures, Red Bull now has two major crashes attached to its interpretation.

Verstappen made clear after Silverstone that he sees the issue as more than a reliability concern. In his post-race comments, he said: “It can be really dangerous, because I could have been badly injured, twice even. I was lucky in Austria and I was lucky here. And at some point you really have had enough of it.”

The FIA has now put both Red Bull’s and Ferrari’s rotating-wing systems under observation, requested further data and scheduled meetings with both teams’ technical directors. The key question is whether the problem is inherent to the concept or whether it is specific to Red Bull’s design or execution. The governing body’s interest is not limited to outright performance either, because the failure mode in both Verstappen crashes involved a sudden loss of downforce at speed.

That gives the FIA room to act quickly if it judges a design unsafe. Article C1.2 of the Formula 1 Technical Regulations allows stewards to bar a car whose construction is considered dangerous, with immediate effect if necessary during a session. At the same time, the wider regulatory debate is still open, with the FIA also weighing whether technical changes or even a future ban on the concept are needed.

The urgency rises again at Spa-Francorchamps, one of the fastest circuits on the calendar and a place where a rear-wing failure would carry even bigger consequences. Red Bull has been working between Silverstone and Belgium to determine what corrective action is needed, and Mekies has not ruled out removing this version of the wing entirely as the team tries to make sure the same failure does not happen a third time.