Why Red Bull has taken off its rotating rear wing as they chase improvements elsewhere

Max Verstappen's race-ending spin in the British Grand Prix came just a week after his crash in Q3 in Austria, and it soon became clear that both incidents were related to Red Bull's rotating rear wing.

The team had run its take on the 'Macarena' wing pioneered by Ferrari since Miami, and the first race weekends passed without issue.

However after the Silverstone incident team boss Laurent Mekies confirmed that there would be a thorough review.

With the next race taking place in Spa – a place where drivers need to have complete confidence that their cars are going to stick to the road entering high-speed corners – the team decided to shelve it for the time being, and return to the more standard arrangement that was used earlier in the season.

“I think it’s quite obvious, no?” said Verstappen on Thursday when asked why the change had been made. “So yeah, we’ll go back to the old one and then see whenever the latest, or new one, is ready again to be used for us.”

His team mate Isack Hadjar gave a little more insight later on in Belgium, suggesting that on track the impact was not significant.

“Visually it's obviously a big change, but in the car it's not,” explained the Frenchman. “It's less than you might think. It's hard even for us to measure the loss to going back to it.

“So we still reckon to have similar competitiveness to last weekend, for example, even though it's definitely a less impressive rear wing. But we're making sure the other one comes back to us as soon as we can, and in a safer way as well.”

An obvious question is why only Verstappen suffered over those two weekends in Silverstone and Austria but Hadjar stressed it could easily have been his car.

“I guess I got quite lucky for two rounds in a row,” he said. “So yeah, this one was really down to luck.

“It could have happened to neither of us, and it could have happened four times to the both of us. So on this one, he took it for me, unfortunately. And to be honest, his problem is my problem as well, and we need to fix it.”

While the rear wing may be a focal point this weekend, Verstappen’s frustrated Silverstone weekend highlighted that Red Bull also have other issues to address.

“On the engine side definitely we've been probably a bit less competitive in Silverstone, but roughly decent,” said Hadjar. “But for me, it's more understanding this new package. Already I said in Red Bull Ring where, while competitive, I didn't feel good in the car.

“And I think in Silverstone we were less competitive. But at the same time, it's the second race with the updates. It was a huge package, and it seems like post races we understood a lot of things that we didn't get during the weekend, and if we had to come back now, we would obviously find more pace. But it is what it is. We move on, and we apply it for this weekend.”

Asked to expand on the issues, he said: “In Red Bull Ring, it felt terrible on the brakes, terrible overheating the tyres. Silverstone, I felt a lot better, but competitiveness, if anything, was worse. And then there's other issues I can't really talk about on the car, and that explains the lack of performance.

“You look at the data against competitors; it's not one axle where it's clear we're lacking. We're a bit slow everywhere and at least it's good news in a way. The car is healthy, but it's just a tiny bit slower everywhere than our competitors, and we know what we need to do.”

Another specific area of focus at Red Bull has been starts, which have caught the drivers out on a regular basis in 2026. Hadjar is hopeful that Spa will be better after some recent homework.

“I think we've been putting a lot of pressure on trying to reassess the issues,” said Hadjar. “We've had a bit of testing recently in Silverstone after the race, and we've had some good opportunity to try things, which we did, and we learned as well.

“I think we're on a way better page than in Silverstone, but we're still chasing to be doing what Ferrari is doing, for example, they are very consistent. I think you've got Williams as well [who] are very good, and Racing Bulls are doing a great job too. So we should as well.”