Ferrari working on 'flexible' front wing

After ongoing intrigue in Malaysia about the behaviour of Red Bull Racing's front wing, following fresh questions from McLaren about the RB7's characteristics, a number of rival teams are now expected to harness the concept.

And Ferrari has become the first to confirm that it already has a development plan under way now that it has been shown the low-running front wing can still be used despite tougher flexible bodywork tests introduced this year.

Aldo Costa, Ferrari's technical director, said on Saturday: "We are going deeper in the evaluation of front wings and we will do a 'flexible' front wing soon."

Mercedes GP team principal Ross Brawn says a number of rival outfits have been caught out in terms of front wing development because they believed the tougher 2011 tests would rule out the idea of a flexible wing working.

"The test changed over the winter," explained Brawn. "So I think a number of us assumed the new tests would capture everything, and maybe they haven't. But because the test changed over the winter then I think certainly from our perspective we did not put any effort into that side of things. But Red Bull have demonstrated that you can take an approach that is perfectly legal and gain advantage from it."

Brawn said that there was no question about Red Bull Racing's legality, and that the only options going forward were for either even more stringent FIA tests to tighten up that area of car design, or for rival outfits to copy it.

"It is an interesting point at the moment," he said. "You have to pass an FIA test and, if you pass an FIA test, then that is a measure. That is the only measure there is.

"Their wing probably gets tested more than anyone else's. I think there are two developments that will come - either the tests change or more people will move in that direction because it brings greater efficiency. That is where it is.

"They pass the test and those are the tests that decree whether the car is legal or not. But we see quite honestly there is another car out there that is not using that approach that is quite competitive as well, so it is not the only solution."