Who's running KERS in the tests?

From what I have read so far BMW, Renault, Williams, and Red Bull are going to be running KERS in Melbourne. Everyone else seems to be on the fence. Of course no one will know for sure until next week. It will certainly add another element (a cloud?) to the first race of the season.

 

It seems that no one really knows for sure. I believe that the tests have been both with and without the system and, if history is any indication, I'm sure the teams have been a little less than revealing as to the details of the results of that test. In one interview, I've read that LH loves the system and is happy that there is a new toy in the cockpit and in another article I read that Mclaren are not happy with the system and won't be using it for Melbourne...

 

Renault just announced that they will race with KERS at Melbourne, and given the weight of the system, they must have things running pretty well for Fernando to be at or near the top of the testing time sheets with the KERS system on board and testing well enough to make the decision to race with it. I would not be surprised if Brawn GP ran a well-sorted KERS system at Melbourne, since Honda did start developing that system some time ago.

But, I'm also surprised that McLaren is on the fence about KERS the way they are, such that if they have not been running KERS in testing and Hammy's times are an indication of what the car is like without KERS, then it will be interesting to see what the car is like with KERS installed.

 

I agree 100%...I am in the camp that there may be a bit of a head-fake going on with McLaren at the moment. Of course, they could be that terrible, but it is such a stark contrast in performance it almost seems exaggerated. It WILL make for an interesting start, however and that is good for everyone

 

I thought you had to start with the Kers discharged and could not use it until you built up energy via braking?

 

What about the warm up lap then? How are the stewards going to know if someone already charged his system or not on that lap?

 

What I read (and I know not where) was that the onboard telemetry can tell them, so you cannot cheat by brake-checking on the warmup...

 

From what I've gathered in F1-live and other forums, Brawn GP has not and will not be running KERS. Part of the goal of KERS is the trickle-down to road cars and Honda has elected to keep that tech to themselves. When Honda suspended support, their drivetrain tech and associated R&D was immediately taken off the table. The team's success in testing is therefore thought to be attributable solely to it's head start on chassis development.

That said, I'm thoroughly in the dark as to how teams not running it could possibly have an advantage. Is there a weight penalty attributed to non-KERS teams? Will KERS teams enjoy the added power on courses with longer straights? Is the added power marginal at this point, requiring more development to be useful?

I'm just not familiar enough with the rules & tech, so anyone able to enlighten the issue, please speak up. THX!

 

Hmmm... that would be logical but FIA isn't logical so what do I know. It could explain why the non-KERS Brawn car is so fast. Although I hope they are fast on their own merrit and will spice up the championship (unless they merely take the place of McLaren if the latter fail to improve over their current performance).

 

Glad to see many teams giving it a shot.
They should be able to "charge" the system on the warm up lap if electrical but a mechanical system may wind down a bit sitting at starting box.
I dont see why these systems cant be almost fully tested already with a proper dyno/rolling bed setup. You have primarily forward and aft G loading. This should not take much track development.
In theory