Fred Vasseur says there is no guarantee that Ferrari will run its innovative rotating rear wing at next month’s Australian Grand Prix.
Following a winless season in 2025, Ferrari has emerged as one of the early leading contenders in F1 2026 after an impressive pre-season.
Ferrari unveiled radical rotating rear wing in Bahrain F1 2026 testing
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The Italian team brought a number of innovations to the final test in Bahrain, debuting a small wing close to the exhaust of the SF-26 on Wednesday.
That was followed on Thursday by the arrival of a highly innovative rotating rear wing, a radical solution to the new active aerodynamics rules.
Rather than opening like the previous DRS flap – a design chosen by most teams – Ferrari’s design sees the upper elements of the rear wing rotate when the drivers activate the new straight-line mode.
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Audi and Alpine are the only other teams to come up with an unusual mechanism with rear wing designs, with Ferrari’s unique on the F1 2026 grid.
Appearing in Thursday’s team principals’ press conference in Bahrain, Vasseur downplayed the importance of Ferrari’s recent upgrades, claiming the SF-26’s recent innovations do not make a “big difference” compared to other designs.
And he stopped short of confirming that the rotating rear wing will appear in the first race of the new season in Melbourne on March 8.
Vasseur told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets: “I think everybody is doing innovation. Sometimes it’s visible, sometimes it’s not.
“I’m sure that our competitors and everybody on the grid is doing exactly the same.
“It’s true that the last two bits that we bought on track were visible from outside, but it’s not a big difference with the others.
“I don’t know if it will be for Melbourne or for the next one [in China].”
Writing in his in-depth analysis of the Ferrari rear wing on Thursday, PlanetF1.com tech editor Matt Somerfield wrote that rival teams had considered a similar design for 2026.
Somerfield wrote: “It’s understood other teams in the paddock considered its use, but opted not to spend time and resources on developing a solution that also had some perceived drawbacks.”
These drawbacks, Somerfield writes, were related to how long it takes the Ferrari rear wing to open and close compared to more conventional solutions.
He added that the rear wing could briefly act like a sail on a boat, bringing a negative aerodynamic effect at the moment when both flaps are vertical during the transitional process.
James Vowles, the Williams team principal, confirmed on Thursday in Bahrain that a Ferrari-style rear wing solution had not “come across our radar” during the 2026 design phase.
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