McLaren has spent a season watching Ferrari and Red Bull play with a trick rear wing while pretending it wasn’t bothered. That pretence ends at Monza, where the team will finally deploy its own version of the so-called ‘Macarena’ system, this time branded the ‘H-wing’ after the letter it exploits in title sponsor Etihad’s logo. Better late than never, though ‘late’ is doing some heavy lifting here.
A Trick Wing That Took Its Time
McLaren tested the device in FP1 in Hungary but shelved it before qualifying and the race, which tells you everything about how confident the team actually was in it at the time. RacingNews365 reports the system will now run properly at Monza, a track that punishes drag more than almost anywhere else on the calendar and therefore the perfect place to stop dithering.
The concept mirrors the F-duct trickery of 2010, when teams hid a stall-inducing channel behind the ‘F’ of Vodafone branding. Ferrari got there first in pre-season testing this year, Red Bull followed shortly after, and McLaren has spent months playing catch-up on a device that, on paper, should suit the draggy MCL40 rather well. The car has never been short of downforce; it has occasionally been short of top speed, and an H-wing that stalls the rear wing on the straights is precisely the kind of fix that turns a good chassis into an unbeatable one at a venue like this.
Alongside the wing, McLaren is bringing what the team describes as updated floor furniture, aimed at cleaning up airflow and shedding yet more drag. None of this is revolutionary on its own. Put together at a circuit that rewards exactly this kind of fine-tuning, it could be the difference between pole and third on the grid.
Red Bull and Ferrari Aren’t Standing Still Either
Red Bull arrives with a revised floor body designed to increase local load and aerodynamic stability, plus a new exhaust tailpipe shaped for Monza’s specific demands. A front wing with tweaked end-plate vanes will also be evaluated, which is the sort of sentence that sounds minor until you remember Red Bull rarely wastes a wind tunnel run on something that doesn’t work.
Ferrari, meanwhile, has gone big. The Scuderia is rolling out a revised floor, an updated version of its own Macarena wing, a new front wing and, most significantly, the second ADUO-specification engine, an upgrade estimated to be worth roughly 15 horsepower. Lewis Hamilton has warned the ADUO-specification engine upgrade is progress rather than a solution, calling it a step forward but not everything Ferrari needs. Modest words for a power unit gain at the one track where power units decide races.
Mercedes, by contrast, has brought nothing in the way of performance parts. Just a low-drag specification of wings and bodywork, the same approach Ferrari itself would have taken had it not prioritised the engine work. Standing still at Monza while your rivals arrive with new floors, new wings and extra horsepower is either supreme confidence or a genuine admission that the development cupboard is bare for now.
Russell Says the Quiet Part Out Loud
George Russell isn’t pretending otherwise. Speaking to media ahead of the weekend, the Mercedes driver named McLaren as the team to beat, a striking admission from a man whose team still leads the constructors’ standings by a wide margin.
“If you look at the last few races and how competitive Lando and McLaren have been, it’s very fair to say they’re the team to beat right now.” – George Russell
Lando Norris has won the last two races, in Hungary and at Zandvoort, and Russell isn’t dressing that up as anything other than what it is: McLaren currently holds the initiative. Russell himself took a sprint win and a podium in the Netherlands, but he’s refreshingly honest about what that actually means.
He believes Mercedes’ underlying result at Zandvoort flattered the car rather than reflected it, and he’s blunt that his team is currently an upgrade behind most of the field. Mercedes isn’t expected to introduce further development until later in the season, leaving Russell and teammate Kimi Antonelli to fight this weekend with what they’ve got while Ferrari and McLaren turn up with fresh parts.
Why Russell Rates Four Teams, Not One
Monza rewards raw power and low drag more than almost any other circuit on the calendar, which is exactly why Russell won’t write off Red Bull despite its comparatively modest tally in the standings. The RB22 pairs a strong power unit with genuinely low drag, a combination built for exactly this kind of track.
“We can’t forget about Red Bull, they also have a very strong power unit. We know this circuit will suit them more than the others.” – George Russell
Add Ferrari’s engine gain and floor changes, McLaren’s newly deployed H-wing, and Mercedes’ honest uncertainty about its own pace, and Russell’s conclusion is hard to argue with: this could be a genuine four-way fight rather than the coronation some might expect given Mercedes’ points lead.
“Ferrari is bringing the upgrade, so I think this weekend it could be a race between four teams. It’s so close that the last tenth in qualifying could make the difference between a few positions, which could change the podium. So right now I don’t know who will be the team to beat.” – George Russell
That’s a remarkably candid line from a driver whose team still sits comfortably atop the constructors’ table on 425 points, with Ferrari on 338 and McLaren on 263. Points banked earlier in the season buy patience, not immunity, and Russell knows it.
A Weekend With No Obvious Favourite
Mercedes doesn’t need to panic. A gap that size doesn’t evaporate over one bad weekend, and Kimi Antonelli still leads the drivers’ championship heading into Monza, even if he’ll be starting from the back of the grid this time. But turning up to the Temple of Speed with nothing but low-drag bodywork while three direct rivals arrive with new floors, new wings and, in Ferrari’s case, extra horsepower, is not the sort of thing a genuine favourite does.
McLaren’s H-wing might turn out to be worth half a tenth. Ferrari’s engine gain might not survive first contact with reliability concerns. Red Bull’s floor tweaks might do nothing at all. But the fact that Mercedes’ own driver won’t call his team the favourite, at a track where it should matter least how far ahead you already are in the championship, says plenty about where the real form currently sits.
