28/04/2010
NEWS STORY
KERS looks likely to return next season, with Ferrari and Renault offering to supply rival teams with units more powerful and cheaper than those used in 2009.
Following a meeting of the teams' alliance, the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA), Williams technical director Sam Michael revealed that the controversial device looks likely to make a come back despite the fact that it was widely shunned last season.
"Basically Ferrari and Renault have put forward proposals that they could do KERS for less than a million euros (£868,000)," the Australian told Reuters. "Renault will supply anyone who asks for it on the grid and Ferrari will supply any of their customers, anyone who is running a Ferrari engine.
"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."
Between them, the teams are believed to have spent almost £1bn developing KERS systems for 2009 though only McLaren and Ferrari actually persisted with the devices for much of the season, far less won races.
With an eye on the cost of the units being offered by Ferrari and Renault, not to mention the possible benefits in terms of increasing overtaking and boosting the sport's green credentials, the teams are hoping to make a decision within the next week or so.
"I think that by Barcelona, the FOTA executive is due to try and make a decision on KERS for 2011," said Michael. "It's all pretty split at the moment on that," said Michael.