Rivals copying Ferrari F1 aero designs “a good reward” for Maranello

Setembro 1, 2026 lojamais44@gmail.com

Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur says rival teams copying its innovative Formula 1 designs is a “good reward” for Maranello.

Ferrari came into the 2026 regulations cycle with a striking car, the SF-26, which featured a number of intriguing areas of innovation.

At winter testing in Bahrain, the team attached a winglet to the structure behind the exhaust, internally dubbed Flick Tail Mode (FTM), which adds downforce to the rear-end of the car at the expense of a small amount of additional drag.

The next day, Ferrari introduced a rotating wing, nicknamed Macarena wing, which flips 180 degrees between its corner mode and straight mode.

The exhaust wing in particular has been widely copied by its rivals, even if Ferrari’s solution has been hard to fully reverse engineer because the Scuderia designed elements of the rear of the car around it. The FIA has since outlawed the exhaust device for 2027 by closing the loophole in the technical regulations, to avoid designs getting out of control.

The upside-down wing has also since been adopted by Red Bull and trialled by McLaren. McLaren started working on the project as a reaction to what it saw Ferrari do in testing, while Red Bull independently pursued a different design concept.

“We were disappointed not to pick that up as quickly as Ferrari did and then Red Bull,” said McLaren’s technical director Neil Houldey. “As soon as we saw it, we realised there was an opportunity there.”

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Eric Le Galliot

Speaking exclusively to Motorsport.com, Ferrari team principal Vasseur said it was a boost for his Maranello aerodynamicists and designers to be leading the way as he actively encouraged them to adopt an innovative mindset and take more risks.

When asked if rival teams copying the exhaust wing and rear wing was a compliment to Maranello, Vasseur replied: “I’m not there to have compliments. I’m there because I want to win. The best compliment for me is to go on the podium.

“But yes, it’s true that for the guys in the team, to see Red Bull coming with the wing, and I think probably Red Bull started before seeing our wings, but the others starting to copy [it], or even the device on the exhaust, for the guys in the team who had the idea it’s a good reward.”

Given Ferrari’s well documented power unit weakness, it is not a stretch to suggest its SF-26 can be considered the best chassis in F1. Following a raft of upgrades, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton both won a grand prix – in Silverstone and Barcelona, respectively – and Ferrari holds second in the standings.

The SF-26 was the first car conceived under the auspices of technical director Loic Serra, who was initially signed in 2023 but only joined from Mercedes at the end of 2024 after a long gardening leave period.

According to Vasseur, that protracted process is a good example of why it takes so long to turn an F1 team around. “The frustration that you can have sometimes in F1 is that on the technical side the process is mega long, because you have a lot of inertia,” he explained.

“For example, we started to discuss [with Loic] mid ’23 and he joined the team at the end of 2024. Then he’s focused on the car of ’26, and he’s still recruiting people to help him. It means that this process is about years, when on the other hand we want to get results next week.

“I’m very, very pleased with the choices that we made, with the set-up that we have, and the collaboration that we have in the team. The team is strong. The collaboration is mega strong.”