Zak Brown hints McLaren could unleash its own ‘Macarena’ wing

McLaren may be preparing to join Formula 1’s latest aerodynamic arms race after Zak Brown dropped a strong hint that the Woking squad is seriously evaluating its own version of the now-infamous “Macarena” rotating rear wing.

What began as a curious Ferrari experiment earlier this season is rapidly becoming one of the paddock’s hottest technical trends – and now McLaren appears to be circling the innovative concept.

After briefly trialing the idea in pre-season testing, the Scuderia gave the rotating element a more complete outing in Miami. Red Bull then arrived in Florida armed with its own interpretation as part of a major RB22 upgrade package.

The result? A clear performance leap, although it’s unclear how much of that improvement was to the novel rear wing.

Max Verstappen returned to the sharp end with a front-row qualifying performance, while McLaren itself enjoyed its strongest weekend of the season as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri secured a double podium finish.

And Brown openly admitted the reigning constructors’ champions have been paying close attention.

“We have. As you can imagine, all the teams look at what each other do,” Brown told Sky F1. “It’s clever and we think it could be beneficial, so not surprised to see another team using it.”

That comment alone has ignited speculation that McLaren engineers are already deep into studying how to integrate a similar concept onto the MCL40.

A consolidating field

The intrigue surrounding the rotating rear wing is only adding fuel to an increasingly intense development battle at the front of the grid.

After a shaky opening to the season, McLaren and Red Bull both made visible gains in Miami, tightening the fight with Mercedes and Ferrari as Formula 1 edges toward another ultra-competitive era.

Brown believes the field compression has already begun.

“They’ve been quick all weekend, so they’ve got some great development on the car,” he said of Red Bull.

“Obviously [there’s] the Ferrari and then the Mercedes, so you have your top four. If you look at the lap times now compared to Australia, the whole field is starting to get consolidated.

“So I think 0in not too short order, we’ll be back to where we were with a very competitive, tight grid.”

And if McLaren does unleash its own “Macarena” wing in the coming races, Formula 1’s aerodynamic chess match may become even more fascinating.

Read also: Stella delivers blunt verdict on Mercedes vs McLaren pace battle

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via X and Facebook