Costa critical of McLaren over floor row

As autosport.com first revealed, McLaren wrote to the FIA on the Friday of the Australian Grand Prix to ask if they could fit a spring device to the floor of their car that would help resist FIA flexibility tests.

The move came amid suspicions that a similar system that had been used by Ferrari since 2003 was helping the front of their floor flex up at high speed - improving aerodynamics and therefore increasing straightline speed.

McLaren's clarification request resulted in the FIA changing the way that they conduct the flexibility tests, because teams were no longer allowed to fit the spring devices while the tests were done.

Ferrari were one of several teams that had to make modifications to their floor as a result of the affair, but with the changes appearing to have made little impact on their speed Costa has said he does not understand McLaren's motivation for complaining.

"The clarification was done from McLaren to the FIA and the FIA answered clarifying it for all teams in Formula One," said Costa about what happened.

"Some teams had springs, others had a bucking stay. The document clarified all the systems and put everybody at the same level for a general stiffness of the bodywork to pass the FIA test.

"But it's difficult to answer why they did it because the system we used is generally used in Formula One by all the cars. It seems they were looking at other cars more than focusing on their own."

Costa confirmed that Ferrari did have to make modifications to their car to accommodate the new test, but insisted they were not major.

"It was some detail changes but nothing fundamental that impacts on the performance of the car," he said.