Ferrari initially shelved the Macarena wing over concerns it may rehash old Lewis Hamilton issue

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Ferrari chose not to use their Macarena wing in China due to an issue Lewis Hamilton faced for much of last season.

When Ferrari introduced the Macarena wing during testing earlier this year, there was a lot of excitement surrounding the innovation.

However, they didn’t immediately debut the new wing, as Ferrari worried the Macarena wing couldn’t last the length of an entire race.

After debuting the wing during qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix, Ferrari shelved it for the actual race, owing to some troubling data.

And as it turns out, Ferrari saw that the Macarena wing was causing an issue they had worked hard to address for Lewis Hamilton last season.

READ MORE: Fred Vasseur was right all along about Ferrari gamble that wrecked Lewis Hamilton’s first season

Ferrari noticed Macarena wing was impacting rear stability

According to GPBlog, Ferrari saw during qualifying that the Macarena wing was not rotating back to its original position fast enough, leading to rear-end instability for Lewis Hamilton during FP1.

“What emerged already from the first few laps was that the wing took too long to rotate back into its original position under braking, consequently making the rear-end loose.”

“This rear instability caused Hamilton to spin during the first stages of the first practice session, alerting engineers that something wasn’t working properly.”

“The fact that the two rear flaps had to rotate 270° to close meant that the closure of the rear and front wings was not synchronised, with the former closing after the latter.”

“As a consequence, engineers decided to put this rear wing solution aside for the weekend, focusing exclusively on the original version that appeared in Australia, which gave drivers more confidence and stability under braking.”

READ MORE: Ferrari believe they have the solution for noticeable balance issues their Macarena rear wing causes

Ferrari abandoned their Macarena rear wing before Sprint Qualifying due to reliability concerns

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Lewis Hamilton struggled with rear-end instability in 2025

Lewis Hamilton will be thrilled that Ferrari are taking his concerns seriously this time around, given his issues with rear-end stability.

Ferrari ignored many of Hamilton’s complaints during the course of the season about the rear-end instability.

Hamilton was understandably overwhelmed by the situation, and it resulted in him struggling for much of last season.

If Ferrari are confident about the improvement they can make to the Macarena wing to fix this issue, then perhaps Hamilton will get the boost he needs to properly compete with Mercedes this weekend.