McLaren has made a big breakthrough with their new upgrade and is ready to take on Mercedes and Ferrari.
McLaren is planning an upgrade for their car that could boost their chances of taking on Ferrari and Mercedes in the constructors’ championship. The F1 season had an exciting moment just before the summer break at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
In the 11th race, Lando Norris won for the second time in a row at the Hungaroring, and it was his first win of 2026. He finished ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli. While Norris was celebrating, his teammate Oscar Piastri had a tough day, forced to retire on lap 56 because his gearbox broke down.
Piastri said after the race, “A lot happened today. The hard tyres didn’t work well, and then I got taken out by a backmarker, which I didn’t expect. Then the gearbox gave out, so it wasn’t the easiest race.”
Looking back on the race, McLaren’s team principal Andrea Stella shared some good news. Their new ‘rotating rear wing’—tested in Friday’s practice at Hungary—has now been approved and will be used in upcoming races.
Stella told reporters, “It’s been a tricky project, but not surprising. We got a positive green light on this idea, and we’re excited to bring it to future events.” The wing passed tests during practice but wasn’t used in the race itself.
Other teams have their own versions too. Ferrari made the ‘Macarena’ wing, which Lewis Hamilton tried out in practice at the Chinese Grand Prix before using it in Barcelona’s race. Red Bull had their wing but paused working on it after Max Verstappen had two crashes at high speed in Austria and Great Britain.
It won’t be easy for McLaren to catch up and defend their championship. They are currently 159 points behind Mercedes, so they’ll need Kimi Antonelli to lose some ground, and their new wing will have to work really well.
Stella also said, “The wind tunnel isn’t the main way we figure out how the wing behaves. We use other tools, but the most important info comes from what we see during races. It was important to get data from the track because you can’t rely only on wind tunnels for such a delicate project.”
The new wing could help McLaren get faster on straight parts of the track and in high-speed races like Monza and Baku. These tracks might be where they first try the wing in a real race. If the upgrade works well, McLaren could make a big push in the championship race.