'The right decision is that we needed the track time' – McLaren explain why they chose not to run 'experimental' rear wing in Austria

McLaren have revealed why they decided not to run their own version of the 'Macarena’-style rear wing during the Austrian Grand Prix weekend, having initially planned to test it during practice.

Under the new-for-2026 regulations, teams are constantly finding areas of improvement with rafts of upgrades seen throughout the grid over the course of a weekend.

One innovation in particular that has caught the eye this season is the 'Macarena’ or 'flip-flop'-style of rear wing, which rotates shut when the brakes are applied at the end of a straight.

Ferrari were the first team to run the new technology in pre-season testing, before introducing it during a Grand Prix weekend for the first time in Miami, with Red Bull soon bringing their own version.

McLaren brought their experimental rear wing to Austria last weekend, with Oscar Piastri confirming that it would only be used in practice and on Lando Norris' car.

But the reigning World Champion suffered a hydraulic leak in Free Practice 1 which limited running, while the rear wing was never used as it failed initial tests imposed by the team.

"We were working incredibly hard back at the factory just to get something out here to enable us to test, working in the lab," said Technical Director of Engineering, Neil Houldey.

"We managed to get it flown out but when it arrived, we did some further testing that we knew we had to do to sign it off before it was able to run.

"Unfortunately, it didn’t pass the tests we needed to complete, so we’re sending it back and we’re going to delay that. We’ll try and run it when we’ve next got some fixes that we need to put in place.

"I think [it’s] disappointing for everyone back at the factory with the amount of effort that was put in, but actually the right decision is that we needed the track time.

"Although we didn’t get it for other reasons, we needed the track time on the car that we knew we were going to be running further into the weekend."