Red Bull becomes first team to copy Ferrari’s ‘Macarena’ rear wing

Ferrari and Red Bull have both completed tightly controlled filming days this week, each using the limited 200‑kilometre allowance to validate significant aerodynamic developments ahead of the Miami Grand Prix.

While Ferrari focused on debuting its Miami upgrade package at Monza, Red Bull quietly ran its own revised RB22 at Silverstone — including its first on‑track trial of the Scuderia’s headline‑grabbing “Macarena” rear wing concept.

Ferrari completes full 200 km at Monza with Leclerc and Hamilton

Ferrari wrapped up its filming day on Wednesday at Monza, completing the full 200‑kilometre allocation with Charles Leclerc driving in the morning and Lewis Hamilton taking over in the afternoon.

Although officially promotional, the session carried major technical weight: it marked the first appearance of Ferrari’s Miami upgrade package and the first chance to gather real‑world data under the FIA’s revised energy‑management regulations introduced on 20 April.

A structured programme split between two drivers

Leclerc began running shortly after 9 a.m., logging just over 100 kilometres before handing the SF‑26 to Hamilton. Because filming‑day rules require the car to remain in a single configuration, Ferrari could not perform back‑to‑back comparisons. Instead, the team focused on collecting clean, uninterrupted data across two driving styles and two sets of track conditions.

Both drivers worked through a programme that extended well beyond aerodynamics. With the FIA’s updated deployment rules reshaping how teams must manage harvesting and energy release across a lap, Monza’s long straights and heavy braking zones provided ideal conditions to gather reference data for Miami — a circuit where energy management is expected to be a decisive performance factor.

According to Il Corriere della Sera, Ferrari brought a broad set of updates to Monza, including: a new front wing, a new rear wing specification, a revised floor, and several smaller aerodynamic refinements.

Observers at the circuit confirmed that the SF‑26 ran the latest version of the “Macarena” rear wing, the reverse‑profile concept Ferrari has been refining since its first appearance earlier in the season. The team has spent recent weeks improving the wing’s hydraulic actuation and reliability, and Monza offered the first chance to evaluate the updated mechanism at high speed.

Red Bull follows Ferrari’s aero innovation

While Ferrari ran at Monza, Red Bull conducted its own filming day at Silverstone, where Max Verstappen drove what insiders have dubbed the “RB22 2.0”. The car featured several aerodynamic tweaks, including two small wings mounted laterally on the Halo to improve airflow around the driver’s helmet.

More significantly, leaked images of Red Bull’s 2026 F1 car reveal that the team has now adopted its own version of Ferrari’s Macarena rear wing — retaining a central support but embracing the same reverse‑profile philosophy.

Early internal estimates suggest the concept could deliver a 5–10 km/h gain on the straights, depending on drag‑reduction settings.

The move marks a notable shift: Red Bull, traditionally the aerodynamic benchmark, is now following Ferrari’s lead on one of the most visually distinctive and technically unconventional concepts of the 2026 era.