Hamilton explains Ferrari’s decision to drop the ‘Macarena Wing’ after Shanghai practice

Ferrari’s much‑talked‑about “Macarena wing” experiment came to an abrupt halt at the Chinese Grand Prix, with the team reverting to its standard Melbourne‑spec rear wing after just one practice session.

Lewis Hamilton shed light on the decision following Sprint Qualifying, offering a candid explanation of why the innovative rotating rear wing was removed from both cars.

The “Macarena wing”—an informal nickname coined after Ferrari’s radical rotating rear‑wing concept first appeared upside‑down during Bahrain testing—was fitted to both Hamilton’s and Charles Leclerc’s cars for FP1 in Shanghai. The device, designed to rotate in straight line mode to reduce drag on the straights, had generated significant intrigue throughout the paddock.

Despite the excitement, Ferrari elected to abandon the wing before Sprint Qualifying. Hamilton explained that the team had pushed hard to bring the component to China earlier than planned, but ultimately felt it was not ready for competitive running.

“I don’t really know why we went back on it,” Hamilton admitted when asked about the decision. “We rushed it to get it here, and it was not supposed to be on the car until it was like race four or five, something like that.”

According to Hamilton, the team had only two functioning versions of the wing available, and the early debut may have been overly ambitious. “They did a great job to rush it here, we only had two of them, and it was maybe a little bit premature, so we took it off,” he said. “The car was still great and we’ll work to try and bring it back when it’s ready.”

Ferrari’s return to the conventional rear wing did not hinder Hamilton’s performance in Sprint Qualifying, where he secured fourth place and expressed satisfaction with the car’s behaviour. But the Ferrari's decision underscores the complexity of integrating such an advanced aerodynamic concept into a sprint race weekend.