McLaren raised immediate 'legal' question over Ferrari rear wing

McLaren chief designer Rob Marshall has revealed the team's immediate question upon seeing Ferrari's radical 'Macarena' rear wing in pre-season testing.

In Bahrain, the Scuderia unveiled an eye-catching new design, where the flap rotates 270 degrees to open and close, with the wing working akin to an aircraft wing, and creating lift on the straights to boost top speed.

The team have not yet used the wing in a grand prix, although it was on the cars of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc during practice at the Chinese GP. 

It was ultimately decided not to use the wing through the remainder of that event, with it not appearing in Japan. 

The FIA's single-seater technical chief, Nikolas Tombazis, when questioned about the wing's legality, dismissed any concerns about it, with Ferrari clear to run the wing as it sees fit. 

There were concerns heading into the new season that the 2026 chassis regulations would limit design ingenuity across the 11 teams, and lead to convergence. 

However, in an explaination about eye-catching designs in the prescriptive nature of the rules, Marshall highlighted two areas on the SF-26 which had raised eyebrows at Woking, including the rear wing. 

"We thought the regulations were going to be quite prescriptive," he told media including RacingNews365.

"The tendency now, the way the regulations are written... in the bad, old days, we used to have a load of numbers and stuff on a bit of paper, and that would just define some rather simple boxes you have to keep your volumes within.

"And now there's a lot of very complicated CAD models which are, on the face of it, far more difficult to be creative around. You look at the legality box you're given, and it almost draws the car for you, or so you think.

"You design your car, and then you get to the first event and, as you say, there are quite a few different solutions out there to look at on other people's cars.

"You've got things like Ferrari's rear wing, which everyone saw and thought: 'Oh, okay, yeah, that's all right. We're sure that's legal?'

"'Yeah, it is,' Marshall continued in response to himself before adding: "'Okay. Well, well done then.'

"They've done some more interesting stuff with their exhaust exit as well, which everyone looked at and thought: 'That's quite interesting' — yeah, that was good as well.

"Very different front wing geometries from different teams. Everyone thought the front wings were going to look the same, anything but that.

"I think every car's got something on it where you look at it and go: 'Oh, yeah. That's completely different to anything we were thinking of.'

"So yes, bottom line is nothing like as prescriptive as we thought it was going to be."

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Not just Ferrari catching the eye

Marshall also went onto name-check Audi and Aston Martin for design ideas which had caught the eye at Woking. 

Specifically, former Red Bull chief Marshall highlighted the sidepods of the Audi machine, which he initially believed would be "run of the mill."

"I think ones that are particularly interesting... up and down the grid, if you start near the back end — well, middle — you've got Audi's sidepods, [which] are quite interesting," he added.

"Clearly, they've gone for a different solution, which no one has got anything quite similar to. That may be slightly reminiscent of a Williams from a few years ago, but I think everyone thought they were gonna do something, probably run at the mill, but clearly they haven't.

"Aston Martin, they've got quite interesting suspension geometry. The rear looks quite ambitious, very interesting. You can see some reason for interest behind that. Their front suspension is, again, very interesting — may be inspired by something we did last year, quite similar in many ways.