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KERS is back in
7.07.10
The stories of the demise of KERS seem to have been premature as the Formula One Teams' Association has given the green light for the system to return to F1, after one season's break, for 2011. Actually, KERS is technically still permitted under the 2010 regulations but teams agreed unanimously not to utilise the system this year. Now it is thought that, although most of the top teams will run it in 2011, its use will remain optional. It is noteworthy that the 2009 Championship winning Constructor, Brawn GP (now Mercedes GP), did not employ the system last season.
The July edition of "Racecar Engineering" [a magazine to which Action Resources' MD, Roger Phillips, contributes on a regular basis] carried the view that teams will be allowed a free choice as to which system they use and will not henceforth be forced to run a control system. The larger and better financed teams are likely to run their own versions whilst independent suppliers like Flybrid may well supply the smaller outfits. The Williams GP team has recently increased its share-holding in Williams Hybrid Power (from 40% to 78%); its magnetically loaded composite flywheel technology was never used in F1 but it has been put to use in partnership with Porsche on the endurance racing Porsche 911 GT3R.
The FIA is placing a strong environmental focus upon the future of Formula One and new engine rules come into force in 2013 which may even result in the adoption of a 1.5-litre turbo unit, with a Kinetic Energy Recovery System.
By way of further background, the following article appeared at the end of 2009:
"At a time when teams such as BMW, Ferrari, Renault and McLaren-Mercedes could have done with the cash, the experiment in Formula One with KERS (kinetic energy recovery system) has probably cost these four outfits collectively some £500 million.
And now FOTA has concluded that it shall be abandoned for 2010. The Williams Team was hoping that it could enter the 2010 Championship with a KERS system after all, but their renewed Membership of FOTA has now put an end to that idea.
McLaren has resolutely affirmed that it will bash on with the system for the remainder of 2009 but McLaren and Ferrari may be the only teams so to do.
It was all done to give F1 a "green" face but, more often than not, the faces have been red.
It was back in 2007 that Jon Hilton's and Doug Cross's Flybrid Systems Company developed a high-speed flywheel-based energy storage and recovery system, in response to the then new FIA F1 regulations that encouraged such things. The flywheel captures and stores the energy used by a vehicle under braking and re-cycles that energy to provide greater efficiency and/or a power boost. "It can return about 70% of the energy we capture," says Hilton. The Flybrid system is said to be better and cheaper to manufacture than battery electric systems.
Flybrid is now likely to concentrate upon its work with mainstream vehicle manufacturers. "On road cars we are using the technology to get the car back up to speed without using the engine at all - thereby saving a lot of fuel as well as CO2 emissions". Hilton adds that, in real world terms, the CO2 saving is about 30-35% "with pretty much any car and any journey".
Flybrid reckons that it will be supplying road cars in volume with this technology by 2013 and that some 80% of all new cars are likely to have some sort of kinetic energy recovery system by 2020".
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