Ferrari’s China sprint halo wing: What it could be and why it vanished from the SF-26

Ferrari, under the technical management of Loic Serra, appears to be a team unafraid to explore the grey areas of the Formula 1 technical regulations. The French technical director seems to have revived a concept that had been promoted by Sergio Marchionne during the early phase of his presidency at Ferrari.

According to the Abruzzo-born manager, all the “grey areas” of the Formula 1 technical regulations should be explored as an integral part of competition and innovation. His vision was based on the idea that F1 should be a field of free technological challenge, rather than a set of rigid rules that level performance downward. “Out of a hundred borderline solutions,” he used to tell his engineers, “some may be banned, but the others will remain on the car.”

Ferrari SF-26: here’s the windscreen that disappeared after the sprint race

To demonstrate this, the Scuderia introduced a curious small fin mounted on the front pillar of the Halo at the Chinese Grand Prix – alongside its much-publicised ‘Macarena wing’. It appeared in free practice and was then used in sprint qualifying and the sprint race, but disappeared for Saturday’s qualifying session and, consequently, was not seen in the main race.

Reporters from The Race claimed that it was the FIA that raised doubts about its legality, despite the technical scrutineers led by Jo Bauer having initially approved it. However, what seems to have alarmed Ferrari was a report from a rival team, which allegedly threatened to lodge an official protest after the race.

Lewis Hamilton, in the parc fermé without the Halo wing

Photo by: Lars Baron / Getty Images

The solution had been designed to redirect airflow upward in an area of the cockpit that can be disturbed. It was removed before Saturday afternoon qualifying, as the team believed it would only bring a measurable improvement of a few hundredths of a second, and it was not worth risking a third and fourth place finish in China to defend a solution that was, at best, questionable.

Looking more closely at the small innovation, it can be seen that it was not made of metal, as reflections of light might have suggested, but of a plastic material. The reason for its use could therefore have been as a windscreen – the small deflector often seen on F1 cars – since it could not be considered a structural element of the Halo.