Alonso expecting Renault to run KERS

Alonso confident in Renault's KERS programmeRenault will probably begin the 2009 world championship with a functioning Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) aboard the R29, according to the team's Spanish race driver Fernando Alonso. The French team has been a vocal opponent of the energy re-use technology's introduction this year, and has developed its system in collaboration with Magneti-Marelli, who are believed to have struggled with its battery-based units. Renault is even yet to fully turn on its KERS at a winter test track, but Alonso told Eurosport: "Our system is truly competitive, it is working well with no problems. I think we will start the championship with it and without many concerns, but we have to test it first. I hope ours is better than the others.

” Red Bull Racing will also use Renault's KERS as part of its customer engine package in 2009, but the drinks company's motorsport advisor Helmut Marko would not confirm if the debut of the system will be made in Melbourne. He told Austria's laola1.at: "As soon as it is reliable and offers a competitive advantage, we will use it."

Source: GMM

Ferrari tested unique KERS solution

Ferrari, albeit a fierce critic of Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS), worked on an innovative solution for its 2009 system. The Swiss publication Motorsport Aktuell reports that, parallel to a more conventional in-house project, engineers at Maranello devised a system whereby the KERS batteries were located in the front nose of the F60. The solution would have negated one of the teams' main concerns about deploying KERS in 2009: that the location of unwanted ballast in the centre of the car disrupts the ideal weight distribution towards the front. During initial testing of the new Ferrari, reports indicated that one of the problems encountered was in the area of the front wing. The front nose solution for KERS would also have resulted in the need for high-voltage cables to run through the cockpit. The saga goes some way to explaining Ferrari's negative attitude about the entire KERS deployment, given the vast sums of money spent already by the team.

Ferrari's initial KERS project, developed by Magneti-Marelli, also struck technical trouble, and the more conventional third solution tested recently at Mugello reportedly delivered a questionable performance benefit. Toyota has already announced that KERS will not be fitted to its TF109 in Melbourne, and with two months to go until the season opener, most other teams are undecided. Toyota's chassis boss Pascal Vasselon told ITV: "At the moment our estimation is that KERS will be detrimental on almost all circuits, because of the weight and the difficulty to manage braking.

Source: GMM