{"id":422073,"date":"2026-05-02T16:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T16:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/422073\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T16:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T16:49:09","slug":"how-ferrari-and-red-bulls-innovative-upside-down-rear-wings-compare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/422073\/","title":{"rendered":"How Ferrari and Red Bull\u2019s innovative upside-down rear wings compare"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red Bull caught the eye during Friday\u2019s track action at the Miami International Autodrome when they unleashed their own upside-down rear wing design.<\/p>\n

It comes after Ferrari made headlines at pre-season testing in Bahrain by debuting a radical, rotating rear wing element<\/a>, developed to maximise performance under F1\u2019s new-for-2026 regulations, which feature active aerodynamics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This year, along designated straight sections, flaps on cars\u2019 front and rear wings move to an \u2018open\u2019 position and engage a low-drag mode, flattening the wings to reduce drag and increase top speed, while in the corners, they run in their default \u2018closed\u2019 position to maintain downforce and provide more grip.<\/p>\n

Ferrari\u2019s \u2018flip-flop\u2019 creation<\/p>\n

After the initial Barcelona Shakedown, Ferrari got the entire F1 paddock talking on Day 2 of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit by revealing what would be dubbed by driver Lewis Hamilton as the \u2018flip-flop\u2019 wing.<\/p>\n

Instead of simply switching from an angled to a flat position, the special rear wing component flips completely upside down, creating a bigger gap for air to travel through and reducing drag when travelling down the straights.<\/p>\n

Ferrari opted against using it at the season-opening round in Australia, but it returned for Friday practice at the Chinese Grand Prix Sprint weekend<\/a>, where it was subsequently removed to allow engineers to further tweak the concept.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to see that the team are fighting\u2026 the team are pushing, chasing and really working overtime back at the factory to be able to bring upgrades, because that\u2019s the name of the game,\u201d said Hamilton in Shanghai.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year I didn\u2019t get to see the team\u2019s full potential in that mode, because we were focused on this year\u2019s car. I don\u2019t know if it has an official name\u2026 Someone said \u2018Macarena\u2019, I have no idea why! It\u2019s the \u2018flip-flop\u2019 wing!\u201d<\/p>\n

F1.com technical expert Mark Hughes explained exactly how the wing works after it broke cover.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn normal downforce mode, the wing\u2019s upper surface is of a smaller surface area than the underside,\u201d he wrote<\/a>. \u201cIt is this which creates the air pressure difference between above and below \u2013 and that, in turn, creates downforce.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the wing flipped, the smaller surface area becomes the lower one \u2013 thereby creating more space in the gap than in a conventional flattened (but not upside-down) flap.\u201d<\/p>\n

Red Bull\u2019s own upside-down rear wing<\/p>\n

While Ferrari\u2019s wing returned once more in Miami, and remained on the car during Sprint Qualifying, this time it was not alone, for rivals Red Bull had also introduced a striking design.<\/p>\n

From the television footage and photographs captured throughout FP1, Red Bull\u2019s version appears to produce an even bigger slot gap \u2013 the upper element rising above the rear wing endplates, while Ferrari\u2019s sits underneath them.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo allow more travel, the mechanism and attachments to the elements have been revised, necessitating a subtle altering of the third profile near centreline,\u201d reads the explanation from Red Bull \u2013 within the FIA\u2019s pre-weekend car update submissions document \u2013 regarding the changes to their rear wing.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce it\u2019s fully open, the slot gap \u2013 the gap between the lower edge and the wing when it\u2019s fully open \u2013 is utterly enormous,” explains F1 technical expert Sam Collins in the latest edition of Tech Talk<\/a>. “It\u2019s very different and more extreme perhaps than the Ferrari design as Red Bull are probably trying to generate a little bit of lift from those inverted elements.”<\/p>\n

It comes as part of an extensive upgrade package, also covering the front wing, sidepods, engine cover and floor, aimed at bringing Red Bull closer to rivals Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren after a tricky start to their 2026 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a massive amount of work done to deep dive into what was limiting us, and to bring updates,\u201d team boss Laurent Mekies told Sky Sports F1.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had upgrades planned, like everybody else, but on top of that everyone [at the factory] in Milton Keynes had to try and get around and get to the bottom of what was limiting us.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then insisted that Red Bull\u2019s rear wing design was original, rather than a copy of Ferrari\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as you will not believe me, I have to say, in fairness to the guys [in the design team]\u2026 the guys came up with that concept far, far before we hit the track and we saw what everybody else has been doing,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut as we said, we had bigger issues to solve before to be able to bring that rear wing to the track, and it\u2019s a good indication of how hard everyone is pushing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Bull caught the eye during Friday\u2019s track action at the Miami International Autodrome when they unleashed their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-422073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}