Kers Set For F1 Return In 2011

The controversial Kers power-boost systems could be set to be reintroduced into F1 in 2011 after Ferrari and Renault offered to supply the technology at lower prices and with higher energy levels.

Kers systems are similar to those that are becoming increasingly widespread in road cars, with Toyota, Honda and BMW among those already marketing so-called ‘hybrid’ cars.

They work by storing energy that would otherwise be wasted as heat during braking and re-applying it to either boost power or cut fuel consumption during acceleration.

However Kers, the subject of controversy in 2009, was eventually abandoned on cost grounds. The teams using Kers – McLaren-Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault and BMW – are estimated to have spent a total of £40m on developing the system.

The systems may now be brought back according to Williams technical director Sam Michael speaking after a meeting of the teams’ association FOTA.

‘Renault will supply anyone who asks for it on the grid. Ferrari will supply any anyone who is running a Ferrari engine.

‘Ferrari and Renault put forward proposals that they could do Kers for less than 1m euros. Those have been accepted but what Ferrari and Renault are both saying is that unless we increase the energy level from the current 400 kilojoules up to 600 or 800, to make Kers more beneficial, they are not prepared at this stage to commit that they will actually do Kers.’

Although Kers remains in the regulations, with governing body the FIA backing the systems as relevant to ordinary road users and important for the sport’s environmental credentials, teams have agreed not to use them this season.

‘I think that by Barcelona (next week’s Spanish Grand Prix), the FOTA executive is due to try and make a decision on Kers for 2011. It’s all pretty split at the moment on that,’ said Michael.