Ferrari have failed to fix Felipe Massa’s front-wing after it was seen flexing beyond the intended amount once again. This time in Abu Dhabi.
The Italian outfit have been experimenting with flexible wing technology in the hope they can recreate Red Bull’s now infamous front-wing which hovers just millimetres above the track surface at high speed, giving them a noticeable downforce advantage.
Ferrari’s technical director Pat Fry, recently blamed the flexing on a quality issue, adding that modifications had been made to ensure it wouldn’t happen again.
“We had some quality issue on one of the wings used in India but this solution will be in Abu Dhabi again, although after watching its behaviour at the last race, much work has been done to modify certain aspects of it before both drivers will try it this coming weekend,” he revealed.
However it seems those problems haven’t been fixed with the wing yet again bouncing off the asphalt during second practice, something team principal Stefano Domenicali acknowledged.
“Actually it is very good here in the dark,” he said with a sly grin on his face. “You can see good sparks. It is adding a lot to the show.
“I mean, it’s pretty obvious. The reality is that we found something that was not correct in terms of the structure of that wing but apparently it seems that there is still a problem.”
When asked why it was only Massa’s wing which is affected by the fluttering, the Italian added: “I don’t know.
“I have got engineers much more expert than me here that know that an effect on a wing can depend on a lot of issues, a lot of things, sorry. It depends on the set-up of the car, depending on tyre pressure and so on. Maybe it is a combination of all these elements for our engineers to understand and react as it is not what we would like to see.”
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