Ferrari Leaves F1 Heads — And Rear Wings — Spinning With Wild Tech Innovation
Will the rest of the grid follow suit?
Formula 1 testing is underway in Bahrain for the second of two three-day tests, and because the 2026 cars are pretty much all new, we're seeing some really interesting technical and design contests being tried out on track.
Teams will throw things at the wall to see how they work, and Ferrari has brought something that blew some minds: a rear wing that completely spins around.
Now, for years, we've seen Formula 1 cars flip part of their rear wings open on straights to reduce drag. That had been referred to as the "Drag-Reduction System," or DRS, until this season. Now, it's part of a new system of active aerodynamic parts, which includes the top part of the front wing moving to reduce drag.
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However, this had always been done by simply flipping the top part of the rear wing open like a mail slot.
What Ferrari introduced this week is a top part of the rear that flips completely upside down.
That's wild.
According to Formula 1, the idea is that turning the top part of the rear wing upside down, there's less surface area and therefore reduces drag even more than if they had just flipped it up the old-fashioned way.
Ferrari has looked pretty solid across the board through the testing in Bahrain and the shakedown in Barcelona. A lot of that has to do with Ferrari seemingly figuring out some of the issues with the new engine formula more than others.
However, a lot of other teams will be keeping an eye on this rear wing to see if it increases straight-line speed and reduces overall lap time. If it does, expect to see a bunch of teams trying to copy it.
Unfortunately for Ferrari, such an inventive way of reducing drag is on a part of the car that is incredibly easy for others to see, unlike some other things they brought to the track, like a "flow turning device" mounted near the bottom of the rear wing.
You've got to think the ten other teams are already looking at ways to integrate a system that will allow them to flip their wings, just in case this is a game-changer in F1.