Renault still using KERS this weekend, wants it banned for 2010
The Formula One circus has landed in Bahrain this weekend and the controversies surrounding kinetic energy recovery systems are continuing. Four of ten teams are apparently using KERS this week including BMW, Ferrari, McLaren and Renault. Renault team boss Flavio Briatore remains unconvinced of the effectiveness of the systems, particularly given the development cost. Briatore actually wants the FIA, which governs the sport, to ban the systems beginning next year.
The team has already cut spending including reducing the salaries of much of the staff. Briatore himself has taken a twenty percent pay cut. The F1 teams are currently discussing capping budgets and even the biggest teams - e.g., Toyota, McLaren Mercedes and Renault - are suffering.
For this first year, the use of KERS is limited and the FIA had been planning to expand its use starting in 2010. However, making KERS more useful requires a lot of testing, something that is becoming more difficult with current budget and testing restrictions.
[Source: F1-Live]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mike!!ekiM 9:27PM (4/26/2009)
Better they ban ENGINE development, then KERS development.
Force all teams to use Last Year's Engines.
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randomdude 4:23PM (4/27/2009)
DOH! Engine development was banned years ago.
Noz 7:28PM (4/26/2009)
Basically they can't make it work and don't know how else to get out of it...cop outs.
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Carlos 7:56PM (4/26/2009)
In times of economic problems the Kerss it´s one of the most stupid decitions of the FIA, spend hundred of millions for nothing.
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Chris M 11:50PM (4/26/2009)
If it proves to be too expensive or ineffective, it will be dropped anyway. This kind of race is not just a competition between drivers, it is also a competition between machines, a competition between auto makers. For that reason, there should be few limits on design, construction, or power plants. Restrictions should mainly be for safety reasons.
If they want a race only between drivers, then they should issue all teams identical cars.
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sp 9:50AM (4/27/2009)
If they want it banned it is because they afraid some other team will be smart enough to make it work better than them. I hope that is true as then racing will actually once again contribute something useful to the auto industry. The constant tightening of rules to make it more competitive has been strangling innovation in the racing industry for far to long.
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Irving Isler 9:31AM (4/27/2009)
McLaren is using very effectively. Since it's mandatory next year, we're going to see at least one big team back on top. While their car is slow on the corners, lacking some downforce, the fact that they have it working effectively and reliably (Hamilton did finish 4th - but he's got some talent as well) puts them ahead for the 2010 season.
Since I imagine Brawn, Toyota and RedBull are all going to concentrate on their 2009 cars for the championship, it's likely we'll see a 2010 season that shows 2009 championship contenders falling to the back; a repeat of this season.
The one odd-man is BMW, who supposedly stopped developing last year's car to make a championship winning car for '09. They essentially finished last in Bahrain, so I don't believe KERS is the issue.
Even if KERS was abandoned, push-to-pass, as in A1GP, is a good idea. A limited number of push-to-pass (or boost) uses for the race would do the same thing, and not have any of the weight or center-of-gravity issues as KERS since it could simply up the rev-limit for a given period of time.
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