McLaren leaves H-Wing out for Madrid, with a Baku return planned

McLaren has confirmed that it will not use its H-Wing in Madrid. The mechanism rotates the rear wing through 180 degrees between the cornering and straight-line configurations to reduce drag, or air resistance. It worked as intended at Monza, but for now is fitted to the low-downforce wing intended for fast circuits.

According to Motorsport.com, McLaren has not committed its resources to immediately adapting the system to its high-downforce rear wing. At the Madring, it will use the wing introduced at Zandvoort, with sculpted endplates and better suited to the many corners. The H-Wing is expected to return in Baku, where top speed and aerodynamic efficiency carry greater weight. The report also says that a version designed to generate more downforce is planned for later.

This is therefore a choice of configuration, not the abandonment of the mechanism. The MCL40 returns to a twistier circuit after Monza, following Lando Norris's wins in Hungary and at Zandvoort. Those results provide encouraging reference points for McLaren, without establishing how competitive it will be at a track the teams are only now discovering.