Ferrari’s innovative rear wing set to debut in Chinese GP

Ferrari is set to run its rear wing design featuring an upper element that rotates through 180 degrees during this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.

The Scuderia first tested the concept –in which the upper element flips upside down when the Straight Mode is activated – during pre-season testing in Bahrain. The team has now confirmed the plan is to use the design during the Sprint weekend in China, with initial analysis taking place in FP1 on Friday.

“I’m so grateful for the team, because it was actually supposed to be later down the line and they worked really hard to develop it and get it brought here,” Lewis Hamilton said. “So that for me is great to see the team are fighting, the team are pushing and chasing and really working overtime back at the factory to be able to bring upgrades, because that’s the name of the game. I think last year I didn’t get to see the team’s full potential in that mode, because we were focused on this year’s car.

“[The rear wing] feels the same, you just see it in the mirror. I’m looking forward to seeing what it will do here.”

The wing’s strength on a new circuit will be assessed as reliability of the component is crucial. It is understood the wing results in Ferrari running a slightly higher level of downforce, with the Shanghai International Circuit providing a layout where the maximum amount of energy deployment is available.

Multiple areas where drivers can harvest energy – including downshifting and slowing through the first complex of corners, and the big braking zones of Turn 6 and Turn 14 – are expected to allow drivers to focus on maximum deployment on the long straight to the Turn 14 hairpin. According to Hamilton, the power unit is the main area that Ferrari has a deficit to Mercedes to try and close.

“It seems mostly on straights [that Mercedes has an advantage], so I think it would be, at the moment, everywhere on the straights," he said. "It seems more so when they open up the SM (Straight Mode), that’s when they take a huge step.

“So whatever’s going on in that phase we need to understand, and then they seem to have a little bit more deployment. So less de-rating at the end of the straights than for us – just got to work on trying to see how we can eke out more from our engine.”