12 Apr 2011

Ferrari investigating car after average start to season

5:23 pm on 12 April 2011

Ferrari Formula One team bosses have flown back to Italy to try and speed up development and get to the bottom of their car's poor showing in the first two races of the season.

Ferrari says principal Stefano Domenicali, technical director Aldo Costa and assistant Pat Fry have returned to Maranello after Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix rather than head straight to Shanghai for the next race this weekend.

The team says their priority is to investigate the aerodynamics and on finding out why the cars' performance on track does not match the numbers produced by the wind tunnel.

After looking fast and reliable in pre-season testing, Ferrari have been eclipsed by champions Red Bull and closest rivals McLaren in the first two races in Australia and Malaysia.

Ferrari have scored half the points of Red Bull while Spain's Fernando Alonso, a double world champion, and Brazilian Felipe Massa are only fifth and sixth overall.