Ferrari has parked its radical upside-down rear wing for the rest of the Chinese Grand Prix weekend, after a debut Lewis Hamilton described as a “little bit premature”.

The unique wing made its first race weekend appearance in FP1 on Friday, having grabbed the headlines in pre-season testing.

But Ferrari removed it for sprint qualifying in China, with both cars reverting to its more traditional rear wing.

Having qualified fourth, two places ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton said: “I don't really know why we went back on it.

“We rushed it to get it here and it was not supposed to be on the cars until I think it was like race four or five or something like that.

“They did a great job to rush it here, and we only had two of them and it was maybe a little bit premature, so we took it off.

“The car was still great. We'll work to try and bring it back when it's ready.”

The Race understands Ferrari still wants to gather more data on the wing before using it in a competitive session.

Given Mercedes has such an advantage here anyway, it was felt it wasn’t worth the risk, with Ferrari confident it has the pace to overhaul McLaren over a race distance.

Hamilton buoyant but wary of Mercedes

Hamilton’s promising start to 2026 has continued as he was “really pleased” to qualify fourth, well over three tenths clear of Leclerc.

But he highlighted Ferrari’s current engine deficit to Mercedes as a key area of focus.

“I think we're losing….I think it is on the straights, it’s a lot of time to be losing so we have a lot of work to do,” Hamilton said.

“We really have to push so hard back in Maranello to improve on power.

“It was something that I think we were conscious of last year, that we thought that Mercedes started earlier than us or the rest, which they did last time [in 2014 when Hamilton and team-mate Nico Rosberg dominated] as well.

“So they've done a fantastic job and we've got to step up, we've got to push to be able to close that gap.

“I think car-wise, the car feels great and I think we can compete with them through corners. But when you're down on power, it's just the way it is.”

Leclerc bemoaned a “frustrating session” as he says he “lost half a second in the back straight for whatever reason on the second lap in SQ3”, after heading Hamilton in SQ2. Hamilton was ahead in the first session.

Leclerc is also hopeful of a stronger race pace relative to Mercedes, as right now “we don't quite find that amount of laptime just yet in qualifying”.