Ferrari wants to know why Felipe Massa's front wing experienced excessive flexing over the Indian Grand Prix weekend.
With the team experimenting with wing concepts for its 2012 design, eyebrows were raised when the front wing on Massa's car started flapping at the end of the long straight during practice at the Buddh circuit. A similar phenomenon was observed in the race, and Massa had to have the nose changed during a pit stop, reverting to an older design to avoid any potential problems.
"It was pretty clear that we had a little bit of strange behavior of that specific wing in certain conditions," said Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali. "It was not every time, but it was pretty clear as you have seen it.
"For sure what we need to bring home is good data to understand what the problem is – or, I would say, not a problem, but a strange behavior of that wing, because it was that specific wing."
Domenicali is adamant that the wing design used by Massa was identical in all respects to the one run by Fernando Alonso over the weekend, despite suspicions there may be differences in its structure. He added that the team elected to change the wing at the pit stop because Massa was already coming in with a puncture.
"We were worried about also having other problems, so the most obvious thing was also to change the nose," Domenicali said.