Red Bull ditches the ‘Macarena’ wing for Spa after Verstappen’s crashes

Red Bull has removed its version of the revolving “Macarena” wing for the Belgian Grand Prix after back-to-back high-speed crashes for Max Verstappen, according to The Race. The change is a significant technical reset for a team that had been willing to experiment with a distinctive aerodynamic concept, but one that now appears to have been overtaken by the immediate realities of Spa.

The wing had not been introduced as a novelty for its own sake. Red Bull’s revolving “Macarena” wing formed part of a wider technical direction, intended to give the car more flexible aerodynamic behaviour and, in theory, a performance gain. In Formula 1, though, the line between an ambitious idea and a practical solution is often thin. Once a concept becomes harder to run with confidence, teams can quickly move from chasing upside to prioritising stability and survivability over a race weekend.

That is why the timing matters. The Race’s report links the decision directly to Verstappen’s back-to-back high-speed crashes, but it does not spell out the precise circumstances of those incidents, and it does not claim the wing itself caused them. What can be said from the source is that the sequence of crashes, combined with the demands of the Belgian Grand Prix, was enough to push Red Bull into changing course. In practical terms, that suggests the team judged the revised setup to be the more workable option for Spa, even if it means stepping away from some of the theoretical benefits the revolving wing may have offered.

Spa is exactly the sort of circuit where such compromises can become unavoidable. It is a fast, demanding venue where confidence in the car matters as much as raw performance, and where the cost of a misjudgement can be high. Red Bull’s decision therefore looks less like a dramatic rejection of the idea and more like an operational response to a specific weekend problem. The aim appears to be to give Verstappen a car that is easier to trust as Belgian Grand Prix running begins, rather than persisting with an aerodynamic concept that may no longer fit the circumstances.