Ferrari pulls halo wing after FIA discussions ahead of Chinese GP

Ferrari withdrew the two small winglets attached to the halo for the sprint‑qualifying session at Shanghai after a brief exchange with the FIA flagged them as potentially illegal. The parts had cleared scrutineering for practice, but the team chose to remove them before the race to avoid a protest or a post‑race penalty.

Why it matters:

The halo winglets offered only a few hundredths of a second, but any breach of the technical regulations could open the door for rivals to exploit the same area. A protest or retroactive ban would waste Ferrari’s development effort and could cost valuable championship points in a tightly contested season. A clear FIA stance will also set a precedent for how all teams treat halo‑mounted aero devices.

The details:

• Mounted on either side of the halo pillar, Ferrari called the pieces “minor updates” that add a small aerodynamic load.
• Article C13.3 permits halo‑fairings only inside the RV‑Halo box, with a convex radius < 2 mm and a fillet radius ≤ 10 mm.
• Ferrari removed the winglets before qualifying, so they were not present under parc‑fermé for the Grand Prix.
• A rival’s query apparently triggered the FIA’s review, prompting the team to err on the side of caution.
• A similar halo‑mounted device was banned after the 2018 Spanish GP, showing the FIA’s willingness to enforce the rule.

What's next:

Ferrari will keep the halo winglets in its development pipeline but will wait for a definitive FIA ruling before fitting them again. Team principal Fred Vasseur says the upside‑down rear wing will be tested again in Japan, provided mileage and reliability are satisfactory. A clear decision from the regulators could either open the door for more halo‑fairing concepts or tighten the restrictions further, reshaping aerodynamic development across the grid.