‘Our KERS is not the same as others’ – Horner

F1 Fanatic round-up

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At long last it’s time for the first F1 race of 2011. Join us on F1 Fanatic live which starts one hour before the race.

Here’s today’s round-up:

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

F1 Fanatic Predictions Championship race-by-race statistics

Vettel was the favourite to take pole position with 65% of players picking him. He’s also tipped to win with 37% choosing the Red Bull driver.

The most popular prediction for the top five this weekend is Vettel followed by Webber, Alonso, Hamilton and Button.

Have Red Bull outwitted F1 rivals again with mini KERS? (BBC)

Christian Horner: “All I will tell you is our system is not the same as others’ but it’s at its most beneficial at the start.”

Lewis Hamilton vows to do a Schu and race till he’s 40

“Well, black don’t crack, as they say. So I could be here a long time.”

2011 Australian Grand Prix – Qualifying (Lewis Hamilton)

“We still have some work to do, but I think the race is winnable from here – and I’ll be giving Sebastian [Vettel] the race of his life tomorrow!”

Overzealous fan nearly sends Red Bull spinning (Sydney Morning Herald)

“Webber’s garage was sent into a mad panic when the fan eluded staff on a VIP garage tour to get a closer look at the multi-million-dollar Red Bull-Renault and broke the air box – the top of the vehicle and engine cover – when leaning on the car for a photo.”

Hamilton, Schumacher get warnings (Autosport)

Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg have escaped grid penalties despite being found guilty of impeding other cars during qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix.”

No More F1 Pit Lane Traffic Lights (The Race Driver)

“The FIA’s Charlie Whiting announced in Melbourne today that there will no longer be a red/green light system at the end of the pit lane (at any point of the F1 race weekend).”

Paul di Resta: ‘What Jackie achieved is something to aim for’ (The Independent)

“Dario [Franchitti]’s not really a cousin to me, he’s a big brother. We speak a lot. My dad went karting all over the world with him and was a huge influence in his career, and equally I speak a lot to Marino as well. I speak to Dario probably three times a week.”

FIA adopts team registration system (Formula 1)

“All Formula One teams will be required to nominate a number of senior team members to register with the FIA at the start of each season.”

Follow F1 news as it breaks using the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app.

Comment of the day

Todfod tips Vettel for the win:

He is an absolutely phenomenal qualifier, and if he gets clean air during the race he just flies in front of the others. The only problem is that its not always exciting to watch Vettel starting from pole. If he gets off the start line correctly, the race is pretty much over.
Todfod

From the forum

Thoughts on the BBC’s new commentary line-up.

Happy birthday!

No F1 Fanatic birthdays today. If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

Happy birthday to Red Bull ambassador and new BBC F1 commentator David Coulthard – he’s 40 today!

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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39 comments on “‘Our KERS is not the same as others’ – Horner”

  1. And in other F1 related news the 2011 Season begins today!

    1. And DC is 40 today.. :)

  2. the power boost the kers can provide is limited by the regulations, right? So red bull won’t be shooting off the line any quicker than the rest? The reason i ask is just because the quote from Horner sounds a little bit like hes hinting at great starts from his cars.

    1. sure it’d not be more powerful but it could be a lot more effective because their KERS would be specifically designed for starts only… in theory.

    2. I’m willing to bet the Red Bull system is designed to work more efficiently at lower revs. The power output it regulated, but not the way the power is applied.

      1. Well envisioned PM. Electric motor 100% on maximum torque close to instantaneous a controller here would be ideal spot for T.C..
        No?

  3. Eh Uk guys – are our clocks meant to forward to just after 1am? Or is it still just after 00:10?
    Slightly confused – I don’t want to miss any racing! :S

    1. at 1am the clocks skipped to 2am.

      1. No worries – I’m up!!

  4. Red Bull really do make the most mysterious cars on the grid. No one seemed to know about their exhaust-blown diffuser until the middle of last season, their wings are still flexing, and now we’re hearing about a dodgy KERS system. What’ll Newey think of next??

    1. This was just tweeted from Adam Cooper from an interview with Horner in Feb.

      Horner on KERS on Feb 1: “It’s earned its place on the car for most if not all of the Grands Prix.” Maybe Oz was not one of those

      I think what’s really getting to people is that RB is so fast without using KERS in Q.

      1. Exactly. Altough Newey did state before, he fancies he’s able to build a car thats faster without the KERS. With only the start without it being a disadvantage.

        On the other hand at least McLaren is still wondering how to do those flex wings and who knows what RBR come up with, or are alleged to come up with this year.

        Nice strategy by RBR to get everyone guessing and unsure what to expect?

  5. Re: Quote Of The Day

    Very true in 2010 but I do think/ hope that with the multiple pit stops we are likely to encounter in 2011 at some point Vettel is likely to find himself in traffic without the aid of a blue flag to pass and that is where he often comes unstuck..

  6. IT is possible that they are running something on Vettel’s car that isn’t on Webber’s car? There is no other way to explain a 0.8s gap between teammates. Webber said he was driving his heart out, and couldn’t explain the gap.

    There must be something to it, I am certain we will find out in the coming weeks.

    1. I don’t know. I certainly don’t think 0.8s is the real gap between the two, but also it didn’t seem to me Webber had any particular problem during his quali lap.

      Last year the gap between the two was very narrow most of the times, although with Vettel almost constantly in front.
      I don’t recall many inspections done by Webber on Seb’s car. He looked genuinely stunned.

    2. But Webber also stated he did not use his KERS in his fastest lap. Thats what got everyone thinking in the first place, as he added its by team decision and he was not going to go further into why.

    3. Don’t forget that he was even more off the pace last year in Bahrain.

  7. Well if Redbull have this type of Kers on the car I would imagine many teams protesting it (and it hopefully being banned) How can you have a KINETIC ENERGY RECOVERY SYSTEM that doesn’t recover kinetic energy? Surely it’s against more than just the ‘spirit’ of the rules.

    1. How much energy does it have to recover and does it have to come from the brakes or can it come from another source on the car are the real questions I’m pondering.

      Then again… they didn’t use it. It’s just a real fast car.

      1. Scratch one question… I’ve been informed that it has to be brake related.

        From the 2011 rules:

        1.20 Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) :
        A system that is designed to recover kinetic energy from the car during braking, store that energy and
        make it available to propel the car

        1. Hmmm… “during braking” but that’s not actually saying it has to come from the brakes is it?

          I wish I was smart enough to answer my own questions. :P

        2. While it’s true that the wording is the most exploited part of the tech regs, i don’t think there’s potential to pre-charge and/or use any other power source for the KERS just because it does not explicitly says “from the brakes”.

          I’m not saying at all RBR is doing so. Just speculation.

          1. Pre-charging of KERS is allowed in post-qualifying parc fermé, to prevent the formation lap being full of excessive hard braking to get the systems charged. Thus a one-shot starting KERS with a light charging “cable” that could plausibly harvest a tiny amount of power (but doens’t necessarily have to) would comply with all regulations in this regard.

    2. What if the FIA came up with a clarification stating it was not allowed to charge the batteries overnight (in effect starting with empty batteries)?

      That would force everyone to use KERS only after they get it loaded during several laps or racing.

      On the other hand, electrical boost shoold be used for low rev boost (i.e. “start” buttons) most effectively. Thats how road cars (and the sportscars with hybrid systems) do it.

    3. jsw11984 (@jarred-walmsley)
      27th March 2011, 6:22

      But it does recover Kinect Energy, they just don’t use it after it’s been recovered the first time. nothing wrong with that at all

      1. The systems capabilities are unknown. I read a consensus of small, limited use & illegal. That must belong in Todts’ hands. Recalling
        Austria ’03 (there abouts) the traction ability of that Ferrrari (differential) appears a comparable cheat forward.No?

  8. hang on, i saw pit lights during quali…?

    1. I think what the article is referring to are the “proximity warnings” which let the drivers know if another driver is approaching through the straight when the driver in question quits the pitlane.

    2. That piece about Whiting deciding to get away from using the lights to show weather they can exit is interesting.

      It will mean that its up to the teams to monitor traffic and be responsible for safe release.

  9. Who was the fellow that broke Webber’s car? He should be kicked hard in his.

  10. Hm, when I first read that title with Lewis wanting to do a Schu, it got me thinking he was planning a 3 yr. vacation from F1 as well.

    Sure Lewis adores Senna, but wouldn’t it be better to say he’d do a Prost? Now how old was Prost in that last championship year of his with Williams? Exactly, age does not seem to be the thing, but stopping for several years and getting going after that is a bit of a problem.

  11. Well, they are doing something VERY different with KERS. They didn’t use it!

  12. Oh and what kind of pillock storms into a garage and breaks the car!?

  13. Thanks for the COTD Keith, its good Vettel actually matched won the race or else I would seem pretty stupid.

    1. *matched the prediction

  14. “Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg have escaped grid penalties despite being found guilty of impeding other cars during qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix.”

    Hamilton has had way too many warnings by now.

    1. Mark Hitchcock
      27th March 2011, 21:20

      Not too many for the same offence though has he?

      1. I’m sure he’s got a list of offences he’s ticking off. He’s naughty, but smart about it :P

  15. A fully optimised Kers system provides an average performance boost of 0.3 seconds a lap by harvesting energy that would have been wasted during braking, storing it in batteries and then reapplying it during acceleration.

    Oh dear BBC, oh dear.

    Its amazing that Vettel and Webber got off the line so fast without a KERSystem system, and did they have a chance to deploy their FFW wing?

    I’m going to spend the rest of the year doubling up on everything.

Comments are closed.