KERS

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Originally Posted by gloomyDAY

I'm still disgusted by Spa 2009. Kimi won that race because all he did was push a button and managed to stay ahead of Fisichella. :mad:

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The problem was that Kimi did that by going around Fisi outside the track, otherwise KERS or not he wouldn't have made it.

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Originally Posted by ioan

The problem was that Kimi did that by going around Fisi outside the track, otherwise KERS or not he wouldn't have made it.

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Fair point. Also, Fisi had the chance to pass Kimi in the pits when Kimi committed a mistake, but then so did Fisi right after.

It's a pretty good idea, but the push-to-pass button is an awful, gimmicky way of implementing it.


I'd rather the drivers just have a dial and a readout so they can turn it up/down by how much they want to, depending on their race situation and their amount of Stored Kinetic Energy available.

I believe that the teams have agreed to a standard battery KERS, so that's bye bye to the Williams fly wheel solution :(

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Originally Posted by Sonic

I believe that the teams have agreed to a standard battery KERS, so that's bye bye to the Williams fly wheel solution :(

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Sad, I agree with you.

The huge change has been removal of refueling stops so KERS has a potential new "usefulness".

I have always thought that "push to pass" caused KERS to become out of step with F1 and ultimately led to its demise. A good KERS system must provide some benefit over a bad KERS system but have that benefit realised over the course of an entire race, not just individual laps.

I have warmed to the KERS concept but will never accept "push to pass". The flywheel style especially has very real commercial trucking applications so KERS should be adopted by F1 and see where it goes.

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Originally Posted by Sonic

I believe that the teams have agreed to a standard battery KERS, so that's bye bye to the Williams fly wheel solution :(

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I didn't see this post before I posted above.

That's a pity. I actually thought the flywheel solution was the best/safest and had most potential for engineering challenges into the future.

Oh well... :(

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Originally Posted by Sonic

I believe that the teams have agreed to a standard battery KERS, so that's bye bye to the Williams fly wheel solution :(

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What a shame. The regs are way too tight - I don't know why the FIA is surprised when teams resort to aerodynamics when they close off pretty much all other areas of innovation!

Is the power output of the KERS systems going to be the same as 2009? If it is, I cant see the point in bothering with it again, it was proven that the only way to make it light enough to race with was to spend upwards of £50 million, and only Mercedes got it to work properly (lets not beat around the bush, its lighter, smaller and more reliable than the Ferrari, Renault and BMW versions).

So much for cost cutting.

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Originally Posted by SGWilko

Ferrari had a proven system, so them and maybe STR and BMW Sauber???

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Not trying to pick a fight here, but I have this persistent memory of Kimi leaping out of his smoking cockpit after KERS failure. And a dim recollection of one of the crew members (maybe not Ferrari) getting a massive shock by completing the circuit between the car and ground in the garage.

KERS would seem to be a very dangerous system with limited utility. As long as overtaking and cornering is hampered in close racing due to the preponderance of wings, it is nearly impossible to overcome the short-term burst provided by KERS. It doesn't improve the racing when it allows a slow car to balk a faster one by speeding up on the straights and holding the others up in the corners and slower sections. More boring parade laps if you ask me.

If everyone has it, it may be beneficial, but this piecemeal adoption is unexciting IMO.

Cheers,
Bruce