F1 » Ferrari may delay KERS debut

and all this expensive work will be wasted, when the new standardised systems come in in 2010! FIA should ditch it until the standard system is ready.

Absolutely...
Mosley can harp on all he wants about saving money and how important it is, but here he is still insisting on going ahead with a system that is costing the teams millions! At the worst possible time. And yet, when challenged on it, he was still adamant it was the most important thing they were doing. He's such a douche.

Ferrari , they know can quite easily buy a working system that fits their car from one of their existing component suppliers.

It is not a real cost factor in the overall terms of the sport, a man in a shed at the bottom of the garden could produce a full blown working system for a fraction of the cost that Ferrari have budgeted.

The main problem for F1 and KERS is that it reduces some of the scope that ballast allows in balancing a car, as it is used up by the weight of the unit.

Ok, so who could you buy a working F1 KERS system from and how much is it?

ian, i dont know where you get your figures from. haug of merc, the other day said that kers was taking up 25% of their total budget, so assuming budget is around $600m, then the cost works out at $150m. that is what i consider to be an utter waste!

So is the man in a shed dismantling a Toyota Prius?

Ian Bryan, I'm sorry but your idea that, "a man in a shed" could produce a working Kers system suitable for F1 is absurd and shows that you really don't know the subject.

I'm involved in Kers development and although the principles are based on existing technology the packaging of such systems is very technically challenging.

We need to remember that when any new technology is introduced, like active suspension for example, all the teams have to allocate resources to develop competitive systems. Kers is no different, its optional but the teams realise that their is ultimately a performance advantage if the system is perfected so none of them want to be left behind.

It wasn't me that posted regarding the implementation or cost of the Williams F1 Kers system. I have no knowledge of their system or its costs as they are not one of the companies that I am involved with.

The Kers principle as I have posted previously is based on proven technology currently being used in many different applications. The difficulty is the packaging of such systems into a modern F1 car baring in mind the limited space and low weight requirements of the F1 formula.

One thing I do agree with stivala is that team budgets are set well in advance therefore money spent on Kers would just be spent on other projects if Kers wasn't a requirement e.g. No extra money has been spent.

I'm involved with electrical Kers. The principles used in the system are proven technology namely inverter, battery cell and motor technology. When I refer to "battery cell" it may not be the conventional battery most people would think of (a battery cell is defined as a device for storage of electrical energy..that's all i will say). Understand that energy can never be destroyed only transformed into different states. The whole system needs to transform kinetic energy into electrical energy (during braking) store that energy and be able to release the energy and turn it back into kinetic energy (inverters /motors). Fitting it all into an F1 car, that's the hard part??

@ Stivala Sunny. Do not take Lexington Steele's word as gospel. He has variously claimed to work on the engines for a major Formula 1 team, but proved not to know how pneumatic valves were actuated.

Then he claimed to work on the transmissions for a Formula 1 supplier. He seems to be a bit of a Walter Mitty character.

Now for him to say that working on KERS costs nothing, when the teams are complaining about the high cost of the systems. I suppose that he likes dreaming and still believes in Santa Claus.