Your calculation is correct in principle, but keep in mind that with a mean deceleration of 2g from 80m/s to 40/ms, you'd have to convert those 2880kJ within 2 seconds, so the motor/generator would have to be designed for a power of 1440kW,which would not be feasible due to its weight.
Thats a good point and partly why I said it was only an upper bound, and basically divided my result in half in my final conclusion.
It is an energy limit, not exactly like reformulating fuels, but I see what the goal could be. Then again, the stated KERS giving an avg of 60 additional HP for 6 seconds seems more like the possiblity of getting the passing car into trouble during a pass than an actual benefit. Like getting halfway through a pass and having a 60hp drop, all of a sudden it could be a disaster
Guys, thanks for your input on my silly statement. I said that in jest - I cannot imagine any team or driver in his right mind actually depending on such a thing for his only practical form of brakes. My point was, though, that street hybrid cars have enough electrical power to motor about 50% of the time on electric; that is nowhere near true for KERS, which makes me wonder if this is a political effort rather than a true F1 engineering excercise. Nor do I want to have motor/generator/braking motors in the wheel hubs to run the car and listen to a little four banger scream it's guts out at max RPM all around the track to pump the super-KERS battery.
