Autosport: Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali says the introduction of the Kinetic Energy Recovery System in Formula 1 has been a multi-million flop. Although most of the teams objected to it, the KERS system was introduced in Formula 1 for this season, but just Ferrari used it in the British Grand Prix. Only Ferrari, McLaren, BMW Sauber and Renault have raced with KERS at some point this year, although other teams have also spent millions developing it. BMW, who was the only team who refused to join a veto on KERS last year, has decided to give up on the system. Domenicali said there was no denying its introduction was a mistake. "Yes. It is too simple to say yes, but that is a fact," Domenicali told reporters at Silverstone. "I think we have to learn from it. One thing is the new technology and the fact that for sure KERS on the one side is the future of the road car side. But we are dealing in an environment that is totally different. "We are in a racing environment where they are a lot of things, a lot of compromises, that we have to take in order to ensure that this new technology could be beneficial to the performance of the car. At the end of the day, this is what it is all about. "The reality is that the facts show that KERS in the way that it is now is not ready to be performing in this set of regulations. That is a fact. And, this is something that we need to learn from in the future. "As we always said, F1 is vital to ensure the technological transfer from the racing division to the road car side, but we need to make sure that this is line with what we have to do to ensure we are winning on the sporting side. So, for the future, before doing certain choices, we have to think carefully because we must not make another mistake." When asked how much his team has spent in developing KERS, Domenicali said: "I cannot because it is too heavy for me to say that, to be honest. I know that if you put that amount of money into the development of the car, then you would have been fast like Red Bull today! It was millions of Euros."
Questions: 1) Why is Ferrari still using KERS to its advantage in F1? 2) Why does Ferrari plan to use KERS within two years in its street cars? 3) Why did only two teams vote against KES to begin with (I just hate sentences that end in prepositions)? 4) Is Domencali's Italian accent for real, as he sounds just like Father Sarduci when he talks?
1) Good question - but can ANYBODY tell me (as in point me to some race results) that they have found any advantage to it? 2) Maybe you have some insight that I do not. 3) Maybe they thought it was a good idea until they tried to make it work. 4) I used to suspect Sir Jackie Stewart of jazzing up his accent too, but now think it must be real. He is probably too old to be much good at faking it these days.
I thought KERS was complete lunacy solely for the fact that the FIA was trying to tie this in with cost cutting. I don't know what idiot thought that developing a cutting edge new technology would be on the cheap side of things. Sustainable costs was a load of BS just like KERS.
Sold as a cost cutting measure - maybe somebody somewhere believed this. maybe. But I think it was actually DONE as a political expedient: to claim that F1 is in the limelight of the green revolution and is promoting planetary goodness. Domenicali put it right: it has its place in street cars, but F1 is a totally different can of worms. Best it should go the way of the six-wheel cars, turbine engines, and all wheel drive.
KERS failed for three reasons... all of them due to the the tinkering (read that FAILURE) of the FIA. 1) They put the regulations in too early. Teams needed more time to develop it. It should have started in 2010. 2) It should have been mandatory for everyone. Letting some have it and others not created 2 tiers. There is not a level playing field. 3) The FAI has all kinds of restrictions on when KERS can be applied, how long, etc. Instead of letting engineers figure out what's best, some pinhead bureaucrat tries to figure out he thinks is "best" for the racing, whatever that is. In the end, it was a huge mistake. I don't blame the technology so much as I do the idiot regulators who put it in place.
+1 Leave to the engineers to implement it however they want and it may have gone somewhere. As for 2010, if I'm reading correctly it will remain "optional". But, who knows? Cheers, Ian
