KERSplat?

Twelfth Monkey · KERSplat?

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=38145

For some as yet unfathomed reason, I think it's a pity the idea hasn't had time to show what its real potential might have been. It certainly seems more relevant (or potentially relevant, at least) to road cars than almost anything that F1 has dreamed up in recent years.

Humphrey The Pug

I'm glad TBH, I thought it was a pointless exercise and far too compromised for the teams using it.

Mike Amos

The only way kers was going to work would have been the compulsary fitment to all cars on the grid. Seems to me that was the way it was introduced at inception, it just never worked out that way.

Perhaps ferrari and mclaren can now ditch the things and regain a little of their competitiveness.

TimR

I think I'll be sad to see KERS go as I think it's helped make the races more exciting by enabling slower cars - McLaren, Ferrari, Renault - to get ahead off the grid and then forced whoever's following them to fight to get past.

It's occurred to me a couple of times this year that we can be several laps into the race and there are still a fairly big group of cars all having a go at each other and that's not something I remember from the past.
Usually there would've been a strung out procession of cars by the end of lap 1.

Chris M Wants a V-10

Ferrari couldn't get KERS to work, so it has been dropped.
Simple really

DaveGibson

Dr. Hfuhruhurr

I'm not surprised really - not only does it add quite a lot of weight, which is the thing F1 engineers detest above everything, but in a classic demonstration of the law of unintended consequences, it actually inhibits overtaking, as drivers of slower cars can give a quick burst when someone tries to pass them.

And I'm sure that the time Ferrari, BMW, McLaren and Renault spend developing it goes some way to explaining why their cars are off the pace.

TimR

I was surprised any of the teams used it at Monaco given the weight penalty would be detrimental to nimbleness at a place like that.

I can understand using it in China, for instance.

GonnaBreakABuggy

I think they should let it run with the scheduled increases in power and duration that were planned, the whole point of starting it at a level playing field with the other cars was to get the systems field tested and allow teams plenty of time for development before ramping up the power levels.

Given that the huge development costs have already been incurred it seems rather pointless to stop the concept now.

Humphrey The Pug

TimR

Humphrey The Pug

For all of it's "green" credentials KERS wasn't particularly green anyway.

Everyone who used KERS, apart from Williams who had a flywheel driven system, had to throw away the storage batteries after every race as they couldn't be re-used for the next race, not particulalry green especially considering the crap batteries are made of.

Gooner

The principle behind it is very sound and when you think that the downsized turbo engines use most of their fuel when the turbo is adding boost. If developed to be lighter and simpler, you could replace the turbo with a KERS system and get the same effect and reduce fuel consumption drastically.

The problem with using it in F1 cars is the restrictions placed to make sure it doesn't give too much of an advantage over drivers without it. If they made it compulsory it could be cheaper and less restricted. It's currently only giving 80hp. When you're using an 800hp V8 down a straight it doesn't add a lot. If they restricted the engines to 600hp and allowed a KERS boost of 200hp, it would make a much bigger difference and more teams would take it up and the increased overtaking effect that it was meant to give might actually be achieved.

DaveGibson

Apex clipper