Felipe Massa of Ferrari still perplexed over front-wing issue at 2011 Indian Grand Prix – Formula 1
Felipe Massa of Ferrari who was inflicted with a drive-through penalty at the inaugural race of Indian Grand Prix on Sunday, October 30, 2011 at the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida area, a few kilometres away from New Delhi, is still perplexed
at the odd behaviour of his car’s front wing during the race.
Team principal Stefano Domenicali has also endorsed this as he too observed the front wing of Massa’s car vibrating vigorously however, what was beyond his comprehension was that when similar wings were taken to India how could this issue only surface with
Massa’s car.
The wing that was installed on Massa’s car was the same as that used for his teammate Fernando Alonso’s Italia 150, and it is still a mystery for the team as to why this situation happened only with Massa.
Domenicali said, “It was pretty clear that we had a little bit of strange behaviour of that specific wing in certain conditions; not every time, but it was really clear, you have seen it.”
Massa’s car had been facing some minor issues related to the wing of his car in the practice sessions as well, leading to a temporary replacement of the wing but the Brazilian was given back the old wing at the qualifiers after he damaged the new one.
The severity of the issue was not felt until Massa had a violent collision with Lewis Hamilton at turn 5 of lap 24 which called for a pit stop to change the damaged wing. For Massa, the change in wing caused a horde of problems during the rest of the race,
but the team was left with no other option but to change the wing as Massa’s car had already suffered a puncture following the accident. Although Massa tried his best to save his race from that point on, but all his efforts went in vain when he had to retire
in lap 37.
Domenicali further said, “We did a test just to make sure that everything was alright. It was alright from the data point of view, but for sure we will take home the data to understand what the problem was - not a problem but the strange behaviour of that
wing, because it was that specific wing.”
The team declared their plans to look into this issue after the end of the Indian GP, and analyse the information they have obtained during the race to investigate what went wrong with Massa’s wing and what was the reason behind its strange oscillatory behaviour
at the 2011 Indian Grand Prix.
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