McLaren with a special component: ‘H-wing’ aims to save Lando Norris’s winning streak

Lando Norris’s fans have had two great reasons to celebrate recently: both two weeks ago in the Netherlands at the last race at Zandvoort and in Budapest before the summer break, their British champion stood at the top of the podium. The McLaren driver secured pole position and victory on both occasions. Will all good things come in threes for Norris? Can the 2025 World Champion extend his winning streak at Monza?

His McLaren team do not seem to be expecting to build on the two successful weekends in Hungary and the Netherlands. Ahead of the race on the high-speed circuit at Monza, McLaren is deliberately playing down expectations. This is because the track characteristics at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza are completely different from those of the two circuits where Norris triumphed.

Neil Houldey, McLaren’s Technical Director of Applied Engineering, says: “We know we’ve had a fast car in recent races, but we’re not taking anything for granted. This circuit is very different from the last few, and we have to expect a pecking order that doesn’t necessarily reflect what we saw in Hungary and the Netherlands.” The team expects not to have the fastest package this time round.

Monza: a unique challenge

The Briton explains: “Monza presents a unique challenge: on the long straights, reducing aerodynamic drag is key, whilst the heavy braking zones require stability and the chicanes demand good handling.” Energy management is also likely to play an important role: “As energy will be limited over the entire lap, it will be particularly important in practice to find the optimal strategy for recharging and using the energy.”

This time, the ‘H-wing’ is really coming into its own!

In typical Monza fashion, McLaren has brought a rear wing specification with low aerodynamic drag, as well as further modifications to adapt the car to the high-speed circuit (as presumably all the teams have). Added to this is another special component: The so-called ‘H-wing’, which was already fitted to the car in Budapest and is one of the swivelling-wing variants being used by several teams this year. In Hungary, however, it was only used in practice – now, at Monza, it is set to make its full-race debut.

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The ‘H-wing’ takes its name from McLaren’s ‘F-duct’, which was introduced in 2010 and was named after the ‘F’ in a logo (belonging to the telecoms provider Vodafone) that could be seen on the air intake. It’s a similar story with today’s H-wing: the H from the sponsor’s logo – that of the airline Etihad – is prominently displayed in the centre of the wing.

The 26-year-old Norris is likely to head into the Monza weekend on a high in two senses: just a few days ago, he and his team announced the extension of his contract until 2030.