I first noticed it today at Spain. It appears to be absent on Massa's car and all of the other competitors save for Villeneuve's car which has two much smaller scoops side-by-side in a similar location.
Damper cooling? Electronics cooling perhaps (noting that it is apparently absent on the second Ferrari if I am not mistaken)?
It is true that Massa does not have it, I checked out pictures of his car too, the wierd thing too is that the Ferrari's are missing that hole in the front to cool the driver too, or is hardly visible to the naked eye.
Simon: Nils? You can close in now. Nils?
John McClane: [on the guard's phone] Attention! Attention! Nils is dead! I repeat, Nils is dead, ----head. So's his pal, and those four guys from the East German All-Stars, your boys at the bank? They're gonna be a little late.
Simon: [on the phone] John... in the back of the truck you're driving, there's $13 billon dollars worth in gold bullion. I wonder would a deal be out of the question?
John McClane: [on the phone] Yeah, I got a deal for you. Come out from that rock you're hiding under, and I'll drive this truck up your ass.
dampers="shock absorbers", captM. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_absorber
I'm having a devil of a time finding a picture of a front F1 suspension to illustrate the layout. The shocks are laid down inside the nose fairing, along the long axis of the car.