Red Bull's Miami wing gains on Ferrari under braking

Red Bull and Ferrari arrived in Miami with two very different answers to the FIA-legal “Macarena” rear wing, and the crucial difference appears to show up where drivers need it most: Red Bull’s less tidy central-actuator design seems to restore rear downforce faster under braking, while Ferrari’s cleaner solution may force earlier flap closure to recover stability in time.

Both teams reached Florida with updated versions of the concept after missing the season opener with it, underlining how complex the system is. This is not a simple DRS-style opening flap. The rear wing has to fold and invert through its movement, and Red Bull technical director Pierre Waché said in Miami that Red Bull’s development had begun in 2025 after initial testing on a film day at Silverstone.

The concept is possible because the FIA rules now allow far more freedom during the transition between open and closed positions. Under the old DRS regulations, the opening was capped at 85 millimeters. Now, while the flap still has to stay inside a defined rule box in the closed position, teams have much more scope in the movement phase itself to cut drag more efficiently on the straights.

Ferrari chose the more aerodynamically pure route. Its actuator is integrated into the rear-wing endplate rather than placed in the middle of the wing, which avoids putting a bulky central mechanism directly in the airflow. That came with a cost elsewhere, because Ferrari accepted losses in the outer wing area and revised the outer section’s position and angle of attack in its latest version to make the rotation work.

Red Bull went the other way. Its single central actuator makes the mechanical job easier, helps distribute loads across multiple mounting points, reduces loading on the endplates and can save weight because only one system is required. The compromise is aerodynamic. The flap has to move up and over that actuator as it rotates, which creates losses in both the open and closed states, and during the transition the wing briefly passes through an almost vertical, concave position described as acting like “a small parachute.”

That trade-off looks more favorable when the wing closes again before a corner. Because Red Bull’s movement path is shorter, the rotation time is reduced and the wing appears to recover full downforce significantly sooner. The result could be better rear stability in the first phase of the braking zone, exactly when the driver is asking the car to settle quickly.

Ferrari’s version looks cleaner through the airflow in the opening phase, but the downside in Miami appeared to be immediate drivability. The Ferrari drivers were among those manually closing the flap slightly earlier to regain the necessary rear stability in time, a sign that the more elegant aerodynamic solution may still be giving away the response that matters most on corner entry.

That leaves the two cars at the same destination by opposite technical routes: Ferrari chasing maximum cleanliness and Red Bull accepting some aerodynamic mess in exchange for a wing that may be more useful where lap time is won under braking.