Teams set conditions for KERS returnFriday, 09 April 2010 00:00
Leading team bosses say there needs to be agreement on ways of keeping the cost of KERS down and ensuring the technology helps improve the racing before it is reintroduced to Formula 1. Last year the members of the Formula One Teams’ Association (FOTA) agreed to mothball the energy storage devices on cost-saving grounds after just one season's use – but squads are now actively discussing the possibility of bringing KERS back as early as 2011.
Ferrari and Renault have submitted a proposal for its return next season, which is understood to include a suggestion to double the energy storage capacity. However, while rival teams concur that the technology should play an important role in F1’s future, they stress that teams need to reach a consensus on several key questions first.
Mercedes GP boss Ross Brawn believes the KERS systems shouldn’t simply be brought back in the same 2009 specification since he feels they didn’t contribute enough to the racing spectacle. Instead the Briton reckons it would probably be better for new-generation KERS systems to be introduced to coincide with the sport’s new engine formula in 2013.
“We acknowledge that KERS will have a part to play in the future technologies,” he said. “We think that the gains that were available last year in KERS were not probably significant enough and that we should look at KERS for the future with that in mind. We would prefer to look at something which is planned and integrated with the new powertrain, which comes in 2013. That doesn’t mean to say that KERS can only come in 2013; maybe it can be anticipated.
“But if we do a system now and then we do another system in 2013, it’s a little bit of a shame because with the systems we have now – Mercedes has just won an award for their system for innovation and technology – the advantages they offer is probably not enough, and we need to look at systems that are substantial enough to help the sporting side of the racing.”
Brawn advocates a more sophisticated boost button which would be designed to promote overtaking opportunities. “If we had a push-to-pass button that you could only use a certain amount of time then we could have something really quite exciting,” he said. “So I think KERS has a future, I think we need to be careful not to rush back to what we had last year, which we all agreed was perhaps not a huge success.”
McLaren team boss and FOTA chairman Martin Whitmarsh agrees that KERS should return to F1 and play more of a role in improving the racing – but says the technology also has to make financial sense for everyone given the continued need to keep a lid on costs. “I wouldn’t say it’s divisive [the KERS question]; it’s an issue where a lot of the teams can not afford KERS next year – and probably the majority can’t,” he said. “That’s why we have got to have an understanding, we have got to find something that is affordable and worthwhile for the sport.”
The possibility of a standard KERS system has also been mooted to ensure the energy storage devices are available to the entire grid, although the sport’s three manufacturers are likely to be keen to continue to develop their own systems.
Mercedes motorsport chief Norbert Haug – whose company was widely reckoned to have developed the best KERS system last season – acknowledged that F1 cannot afford to engage in a new spending arms race and hinted that limits on KERS expenditure could be introduced. “It is a question of what do you want to afford, what can you afford,” Haug admitted. “It’s about cost-saving in Formula 1 these days and I think we all should not allow Formula 1 to be a money-spending race for new technologies. Even we being very competent in that [KERS] respect, we would say that there have to be limits. But as Ross pointed out, it would make sense to bring everything together probably for the future – new powertrain, probably a more powerful KERS and install limits in order not to spend too much money. So this is quite a task to achieve that, but I think these are the main points that need to be accepted and respected.”
Meanwhile, Williams technical director Sam Michael says his squad would be happy for 2009-spec KERS to be reintroduced as early as next season – but insists any changes to increase energy capacity should wait until 2013 for cost reasons. Asked why the team is not in favour of the proposal to double the system’s energy storage capacity to 800 kilojoules next year, he replied: “Because it changes the design of the system. So all the time and investment that everyone has made in their systems…it means you can’t just bolt on what you’ve got. It means you’ve got to go back to R&D again and it’s quite expensive at this stage. Our opinion at the moment, this is Williams’s opinion, is that we should leave the regs the same until 2013 when the new engine [formula is introduced] and then increase the power, increase the energy, do whatever we need to do.”
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Now that you know what THEY think, what do YOU think?