McLaren shelves experimental rear wing after Austrian GP teething problems

McLaren has put its experimental rear wing programme on hold for the remainder of the Austrian Grand Prix weekend after early reliability concerns prevented the device from running in practice at the Red Bull Ring.

McLaren removes new wing before track running

The component arrived in Austria on Friday morning and was fitted to the car ahead of practice. But during McLaren’s standard pre-running garage checks, the team encountered initial problems that were serious enough to stop the test before the car reached the circuit.

The setback follows McLaren’s original plan to gather early data on the part, as covered in our previous report on McLaren’s upside-down rear wing test plans.

Experimental focus, not race-ready intent

McLaren had already made clear that the wing was an experimental item rather than a race-ready upgrade. Its purpose in Austria was to provide an initial read on its potential benefits, with the team not expecting it to be ready for competitive use until much later in the year.

From the brief glimpse available on Friday morning, the design appeared to follow a similar route to Red Bull’s version by retaining a central pillar activation mechanism that switches between the active aerodynamic modes.

Norris had warned before track running that McLaren expected a demanding development process before the device could become a dependable racing component.

“It’s not an easy project,” he said. “It takes time to figure out such a complicated wing like this. But it’s cool, it’s innovative, it’s nice to see.”

The British driver also pointed to Ferrari’s earlier interpretation of the concept as an example of how teams can exploit the wording of the rules.

“It was pretty cool to see Ferrari have it at the beginning of the year. It’s amazing what someone who understands the rules and regulations, and understands the wording, how you kind of work around these. I wish we had it three months ago already!”

For McLaren, the immediate priority is now refinement rather than mileage. The concept remains alive, but Austria has underlined just how difficult it is to turn an innovative aerodynamic idea into a working Formula 1 package.