Patronise F1

Patronising F1 since 2007

Wednesday
May 23rd
Text size
  • Increase font size
  • Default font size
  • Decrease font size

Ferrari still working on flappy wing issue

E-mail Print PDF

The Ferrari Formula One team are still attempting to get to the bottom of their 'flappy front wing' issue, after the odd design quirk persisted at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix despite the team claiming to have solved the problem.

The extreme flexing of Ferrari's new front wing design was first noticed at the Indian Grand Prix weekend, with the team blaming the problem on a manufacturing problem.

But once again, the wing was seen to dramatically 'flutter' when at speed at the Yas Marina circuit.

As in India, the issue only appeared to manifest itself on Felipe Massa's car, and the Brazilian dropped the new wing after practice because of the issue.

And after the Abu Dhabi race, Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali admitted that the team was still working on understanding the problem.

"We thought we had understood the issues already in the last race, and if you see the behaviour of the wing of Red Bull, it was exactly the same situation," Domenicali explained.

"With the DRS zone on the long straight, there are a lot of facts to consider: tyre pressure, linearity of asphalt, and set-up conditions.

"So a lot of things that have an effect on that."

He added: "The reason we had to go back on the wing was, because of this problem, we had [only] a few parts and we cannot run a risk of having a problem.

"So I think we took the right decision on that, and we need to fix it for sure."

Meanwhile, Domenicali admitted that he did not feel that Fernando Alonso had been in the hunt for the win in Abu Dhabi.

Alonso finished second in the Abu Dhabi race, and appeared to be challenging for the win over the final pit stops, before he was delayed in the pits by HRT's Daniel Ricciardo.

But Domenicali said that the pit stop issue did not cost them the race.

"When we were coming in it was unfortunate to have Ricciardo in front for the last two corners, and there, honestly, we lost a lot of time," he mused.

"We had a little issue on the pitstop but that was not the real issue - and on that, you cannot say anything. It was unfortunate."

He added: "But the difference was made by Lewis when he had two very quick laps with the medium tyres straight away.

"He was able to pull out the gap and then, of course, he managed the situation."