As the season progresses, Felipe Massa's performances are beginning to emulate those of Ralf Schumacher who would regularly score points though nothing was actually seen of him on race afternoons.

After five races, Massa has 49 points compared to the 67 of his teammate, Fernando Alonso. While this isn't an enormous deficit there is concern that the Brazilian is losing more and more ground to the Spaniard, failing to match the two-time world champion in terms of performance.

Much like Mercedes has discovered, Ferrari believes that the reason for the disparity is down to the car, but doesn't yet understand precisely why.

Speaking after yesterday's Spanish Grand Prix in which Massa finished a distant sixth, Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali admitted that the Maranello outfit needs to discover what it is about the F10 that suits Alonso but not his teammate.

"We have to make sure the car is one he feels confident driving," the Italian told reporters. "For the first time this weekend it was not the case. It is important to go back and see what we have done around Felipe's car.

"Felipe started to complain about the level of grip of the car from the beginning and that has never happened before," he added. "But to be honest, Fernando was also saying this."

The 2008 world championship runner-up is equally mystified. "Fernando is a very good driver but something has happened to me," he said. "Something is not going like I want, so I can't do the lap times or drive the car like I want.

"This is something that we need to understand, and improve," he continued. "It looks like something is not working to give the grip. This is something that we need to understand, and I'm sure we will."