Why McLaren has abandoned experimental wing for now

McLaren has abandoned plans to test its experimental rear wing for now, after teething problems meant the squad removed it before it even ran in practice at Formula 1’s Austrian Grand Prix.

The Woking-based squad had intended to try out its version of a Ferrari and Red Bull-style upside-down rear wing on Lando Norris’s car in the opening session at the Red Bull Ring.

The concept was designed to flip in a way that sheds a lot more drag than the conventional wing when the car is switched into straight mode.

The new wing had arrived in Austria on Friday morning and it was fitted to the car ahead of practice.

However, as the team conducted its regular pre-running checks in the garage, some early issues cropped up that prompted it to steer away from committing to run it in practice.

It was eventually removed after McLaren realised that more work was needed to make it fully functional.

A McLaren spokesperson has confirmed that there are no plans to get it back on the car for any further practice session in Austria this weekend, so it will only return at a future event.

The team had always been clear that the wing was an experimental item aimed purely at giving it some early data on its potential benefits, with it not anticipated that it would be ready to be raced until much later in the year.

Based on the brief glimpse McLaren gave of the rear wing on Friday morning, it follows a similar concept to Red Bull’s version – in maintaining the central pillar activation mechanism that flips between the active aero modes.

"We've done a lot of work in the last few weeks at the factory, just trying to get something to this event, because we knew this event would be a good opportunity to test the wing," McLaren's technical director of engineering Neil Houldey said.

"A lot of work in the lab that happened over the last few days, and we knew that when it came here, we still had a little bit of sign off work to do. When we, when we fitted it up and did that final sign off, we, we weren't comfortable enough to take it into the first session, so we're sending it back, and we've got a little bit more work to do before we'll take it back out to the track again.

"It needs a little bit more development before we're prepared and able to run it on the circuit in the future."

He added "we'll bring that wing back when we've learned a little bit more and comfortable with the design".

Norris had said ahead of track running in Austria that McLaren anticipated it would take a lot of work to get the wing race ready.

“It's not an easy project,” he said. “It takes time to figure out such a complicated wing like this. But it's cool, it's innovative, it's nice to see.

“It was pretty cool to see Ferrari have it at the beginning of the year. It's amazing what someone who understands the rules and regulations, and understands the wording, how you kind of work around these. I wish we had it three months ago already!”