Ferrari hybrid plans show KERS irrelevance
At the end of last year Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo asserted:
There is nothing in common between F1′s KERS and road car KERS.
Vindicating those words, the same week that the FOTA teams, led by Ferrari, insisted they would not use KERS in 2010, it has been revealed that Ferrari intends to use hybrid power in its future road cars.
It’s hard to imagine Ferrari supporting the abandonment of KERS while working on a line of models which have applications for F1-derived KERS technology. The Ferrari patents show several proposals that differ greatly from the energy recovery systems used in F1.
So has KERS failed to drive development of similar green technologies in road cars? That outcome was foreseen by, among other people, Toyota, who described the FIA’s system as ‘primitive’ and hasn’t used KERS this year.
I’m not against the principle of KERS – it’s very important to put in front of the teams research that benefits the environment – but the way it is at the moment is a mistake. It has to be a package looking ahead and we have three or four years to work on the whole engine/KERS package.
In April last year Max Mosley insisted that KERS: “is set to revolutionise F1. It will make the sport at once more environmentally friendly, road relevant, and at the cutting edge of future automotive technology.”
Instead it looks like a technological backwater destined for the scrapheap.
Update: Thanks to persempre who found this link to Ferrari’s patent submission. Interesting reading!
Read more: Problems with KERS and its impact on F1
d said on 10th June 2009, 13:47
what was K.E.R.S in road cars meant to actually do?? give them a boost of extra 80 bhp??? so it really goes to show it was a bad idea and if budget cap is imposed and kers stayed for 2010 how will that come under the 40million aswell… clearly not very well thought out…
nopk said on 11th June 2009, 5:48
@d
In road cars, KERS isn’t used for horsepower boosts, it’s used for fuel economy.
Patrickl said on 11th June 2009, 20:01
and to come under emission standards
dmw said on 10th June 2009, 13:54
The point of KERS was to create a push-to-pass device—a la the late CART series. It’s promotion as environmentally relevant is pure green-washing. The story line of it being technical innovation is laughable, when there are fully hybrid road cars sitting in the parking lot. If fuel savings were at issue, it would not be limited to 6 seconds and x amount of charge—that totally undercuts the supposed green effect.
It’s a grotesquely expensive form of push-to-pass. Now that the veil has been drawn from its greenness, and given the economic environment, it seems completely ridiculous now.
tunerhybrids.com said on 10th June 2009, 22:26
Cool, with Lamborghini and now Ferrari getting in on the game maybe we will see some serious green technology being put to the pavement.
Random Chimp said on 12th June 2009, 19:00
hehe
antonyob said on 11th June 2009, 9:34
did kers in f1 bring that particular technology into the public arena? yes. well then part 1 has worked.
just because the engineers in f1 arent as innovative as they once were in utilising a new technology doesnt make it bad either.
ask yourself, what would colin chapman have done?
if you want to slag off Max slag him off but dont use an interesting technology with plenty of scope to do it.
VXR said on 11th June 2009, 10:03
Colin Chapman would have made his KERS out of helium and cotton wool or similar and while his drivers may have got electrocuted or burnt occasionally it would all have been in the interests of forwarding technology.
persempre said on 11th June 2009, 11:09
:) Very true, VXR, & he`d probably have got the idea itself from someone else to start with ;)
Bhudi said on 11th June 2009, 13:59
I simply think KERS was introduced too early…If the teams were just working on developing KERS this year (09) in the background as such, and KERS was implemented next year, the system,over all, would have been much more sound, and with all teams running it. Rather than having a championship where – one team has a brilliant KERS system (McLaren.Ironicly at the bottom of the constructors champ) others with reliability problems running it one race but not the next, and half the field (including Brawn who ironicly are leading the constructors champ)not running it at all.
It seems as soon as Max gets an idea in his head, he wants it to happen overnight. And it is a good idea (KERS) but, even at the end of 08 it seemed obvious that KERS needed serious testing hours under its belt before show time, with issues concearning both performance and saftey.
Max has some good ideas maybe, but I don’t think he fully understands how difficult it is sometimes, for the teams to turn those ideas into reality.
Chaz said on 11th June 2009, 19:49
“Green technologies” seems to be another one of those trendy new phrases that make so many things sound sweet and lovely, almost as if they frolick harmlessly alongside nature through lovely green lushes endless pastures. But when you really look more closely, things are not as they seem. I’m sure there will be a more meanigful application for kers, and with more time research and development, it will likely come to play a bigger part in motoring.
But be wary folks, look at the detail closely of all that bare the ‘green’ label, because it may just be a ‘green ruse’…
Patrickl said on 11th June 2009, 20:06
The teams spent 200 million a year to improve their engines by 25bhp. Now they whine about spending 20 million on something that is basically a very interesting technology?
I really don’t feel sorry for the teams.
If they want a more advanced version of KERS then let them propose it. Mosley has shown he has no problem adopting better ideas.
KERS is fun, it adds another level to the racing and overtaking strategy and I hope FIA keep it as mandatory in the regulations for 2011 (with increased power levels).