The most-copied idea in Formula 1 this season has a silly name and a serious effect. Ferrari's "Macarena" rear wing - a rotating design that first surfaced in pre-season testing back in February - has become the SF-26's signature trick, and at the Hungaroring rivals are scrambling to bolt their own versions on before the summer break.
PlanetF1's Oliver Harden described the concept as "arguably the outstanding technical innovation of the F1 2026 season," noting it has been a permanent fixture on Ferrari's car since the Miami Grand Prix in early May. Budapest is one of the highest-downforce circuits on the calendar, and Ferrari turned up with an aggressive evolution. Images from the pit lane on Thursday showed three curved mini-winglets stacked vertically above the wing - an extreme high-downforce specification aimed at squeezing more load out of the tight, twisty layout.
According to The Race's Jon Noble, Ferrari's update borrows directly from McLaren, adding a triple-element series of winglets in the central legality box "very similar to the version that McLaren used in Monaco," plus extra hangars above the upper flap. It's a notable reversal: Ferrari had passed on that trick at Monaco - a decision Lewis Hamilton admitted at the time was a missed opportunity - and has now moved to close the gap.
McLaren, for its part, is finally putting its own flip-over wing on track. The team had planned to trial the lower-drag design at the Austrian Grand Prix, only to pull it from Lando Norris's car in the garage after early problems were found. A revised version, reworked at Woking, has been fitted to Oscar Piastri's car for opening practice in Hungary. Noble reported the wing "features a different attachment to the activator, which will allow it to flip over completely," but cautioned that McLaren plans to test it in practice only before reverting to its regular wing for qualifying. If it works, a race debut would most likely come at Monza.
Red Bull's experience is the cautionary tale. The team ran a Macarena-style wing earlier in the season but shelved it after Max Verstappen crashed in consecutive weekends. Ahead of Spa, team principal Laurent Mekies confirmed to BBC Sport that Red Bull would revert to a conventional straight-line wing, revealing engineers had found a problem with the design in testing after Silverstone. The concept's safety even drew an FIA probe. Now, with rivals pressing ahead, Red Bull faces a fresh decision on whether to revisit it.
For a device named after a novelty dance, the Macarena wing has quietly reshaped the aerodynamic conversation of 2026. Ferrari got there first; McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull have all had to respond. Whether McLaren's version survives past Friday, and whether Ferrari's extreme Budapest package delivers, will be among the more intriguing subplots of a Hungarian Grand Prix that closes the season's first half.
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*Originally published on [NewsFormula One](https://newsformula.one/article/ferraris-macarena-wing-sparks-a-copycat-race-in-hungary). Visit for full coverage.*