HRT to use Williams KERS in 2012

2012 F1 season

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HRT will not be without KERS next year

HRT has expanded its technology supply deal with Williams, the team announced today.

HRT will continue to use Williams gearboxes in 2012 and, for the first time, Williams will also supply them with Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems.

HRT team principal Colin Kolles said: “In these past two years we have established a fruitful collaboration with Williams F1 and are pleased to continue having them play an important role in the development of our team.

“Apart from the experience we have accumulated in these years together, they will not only provide us with the latest technology in gearboxes but we will also reap the benefits of having KERS for next year, this being an important step for our team.

“We have grown as a team with Williams F1’s support and we are pleased to continue counting on them in the future, given their trajectory, prestige and renowned experience in Formula 1. This agreement strengthens the development of the 2012 car that is currently taking place at our technical office in Munich.

“At HRT we are working on thoroughly improving the performance of our cars and our target is still to finish in the top ten in 2012. This deal brings us one step closer to that objective.”

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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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49 comments on “HRT to use Williams KERS in 2012”

  1. It’ll be interesting to see how this helps HRT with performance vs Virgin, who, despite getting into bed with McLaren won’t (I don’t think) be running KERS next year.

    We already know Lotus will be rocking the Red Bull gearbox and KERS, and I suspect they’ll maintain their position as best of the new teams, I’d like to think they’ll get a few points too.

    1. Good question about Virgin and KERS @beneverard, if they don’t get themselves one, they will be the only ones without it on track, that would make them dead last, unless they can find a BIG amount of time otherwise.

      Its a bit of a tough one, because they will be using the Cosworth engine, and the only KERS system developped for that is Williams’. So they would either have to get that or develop something theirselves.

      On the other hand, i understand the deal between McLaren and Virgin is more about simulator time and things like that than it is about doing the complete drive train as in the Force India deal.

      1. Presumably HRT must be using the 2011 KERS and gearbox as that was designed for the cosworth engine. Surely Williams will be doing a complete redesign for the incoming Renault unit. My only concern about this, is that the 2011 setup Williams made isn’t very reliable.

  2. So, Lotus will likely use a Red Bull/Renault KERS unit next year and now HRT will use a Williams one. This is good news. I don’t know what Virgin’s plans for KERS are, but I assume they’ll have it, otherwise they’re going to get left behind.

    It’s easy to forget that the ‘new teams’ haven’t been running KERS this year, which explains a bit of the gap between them and the more established teams. I’d certainly expect Lotus to be among the midfield more next year, and now that HRT appear to have stabilised a bit it’ll be interesting to see how they do next year relative to Virgin, seeing as they’ve been troubling them on occasions this year.

      1. Whoops, that’s not the official F1 site… damn the deceptive URL.

        1. But it looks like genuine enough even so Ben.

    1. @dan-thorn

      I don’t know what Virgin’s plans for KERS

      Glock told Auto Motor und Sport they wouldn’t be – I’ve not heard anything official from Virgin.

  3. I tell you what, if Virgin decide not to use KERS next year, they’ll be fulfilling those slots at the back of the grid all season round.

    1. Good news for HRT!! I have never warmed to Virgin, on the other hand I like Lotus and, from this year, HRT.

    2. I think it’s more than likely that this will be the only or almost only new thing they have next year though. Whilst that is great and should see them always within 107% it’s not going to be the key to all the locks.

      That being said i’d love both hrt and virgin to out do lotus next year fernandes is a lieing traitor to british motorsport.

  4. I hope Williams has worked out the kinks in their KERs system. Correct me if I’m wrong, but, of the established teams, it seems like they’ve had the most issues with KERs and their gearboxes.

    I like Williams and I hoped they would turn around this year. It’s just that, well, this system partnership just wouldn’t be my first choice. Maybe from HRT’s perspective something is better than nothing. *shrug*

    1. Hmmm, well Red Bull have had KERS problems this year… not that it seemed to cause them too many issues :P

      1. While this is true, it didn’t seem to me like Red Bull had car-stopping failures. It’s more like they turned off/disconnected the system, adjusted what they needed to adjust and got on with it.

        William’s failures put their car out of commission for entire sessions (At least in the early season anyway.) Seems like their system must have been more difficult to troubleshoot, maybe more complex.

        1. I think Williams had issues mainly during testing and in the first couple of races @rpiian, remember it was a completely new system they did, as their 2009 system was the flywheel driven one.

          1. Mmm, that is a good point, I forgot all about that.

          2. @BasCB what was the reason for them not using that flywheel system? don’t think they used it in 2009 either

          3. Indeed, in 2009 they tested the flywheel system a lot, but it never got much milage @sam. At the time, I think they just had problems with its reliability to get it running, combined with its weight vs. power rating.

            They did a battery system for 2011 because with the big tanks needed after refuelling was banned its to hard to package the flywheel into the car and not make it a real stretch limo.

          4. @bascb And it’s not as if they’ve nailed the reliability since switching to a battery system – they’ve had a lot of problems this year.

        2. @keithcollantine, true enough!

          It really showed itself as a system still in development, although this year its hard to tell with Williams, as just about every part seemed to break down at times during the year.

          1. I think the flywheel posed problems related to packaging if recall. The team were happy that it produced prodigous amounts of power but judged it ill suited to the current tech regs.

            I believe they intend to use the flywheel with the V6 regs when the KERS power is doubled.

  5. “At HRT we are working on thoroughly improving the performance of our cars and our target is still to finish in the top ten in 2012. This deal brings us one step closer to that objective.”

    Do they mean top ten in races or top ten in the championship? 10th in the championship is feasible, but top ten in races? Unrealistic goals are a sign of a team in disarray.

    1. Top 10 in the constructors championship.

      That’s not unrealistic. That’s not disarray.

      1. But it might see them ending up higher in the championship than Williams itself, I fear @mveilenstein!

        1. Not a bad thing.

          1. I’m optimistic about Williams for next year.

          2. ruddy hell i’m not. 30 million us worth of investment and half of it’s going to a mute fin who’s spent the last 2 years failing at about every other series there is.

  6. I guess this is one step towards them not becoming ‘Equipo Rojo Toro’..

  7. Great news for Hrt, hooking up with Williams on the back of their recent retirements due to gearbox failure. Hopefully the Grove team can provide some useful advice on driver management, building a strong technical team, forging lasting sponsorship alliances, and inspirational management, as evidenced by their performances over the past 10 years.

    1. Indeed, if only HRT could take those steps the other way around. Kolles is clever enough for that.

      Wouldn’t it be funny (or just really sad) to see HRT beat Williams to it next year using the old stuff (this years KERS, Gearbox and the Cossy engine)!

      1. @BasCB

        Well, every year they show promise in testing and turn out to be a little worse than the previous year, so… :(

        1. Am i the only one concerned about hrt being in charge of batteries that can discharge 20x the voltage of a house plug? Serious respect to the one brave enough to sit in that car with out rubber underware.

  8. What a great idea….get one of the worse teams to supply their KERS technology to the worst team. Probably will make little difference in the results. Another futile effort but at least it is an effort.

    1. The Williams KERS has been a damn sight better than the one in use on the RB7.

      1. Having or being given the best KERS system, sorting it out and then making it work consistently has been a challenge for even the best teams in Formula One.

        “CURS”, the “Completely Uneeded Racing System” is on the wrong branch of the technological tree. Its benefits don’t transend to be of help to Automotive Maunfacturers. The way F1 uses it is to produce speed and in our street cars it is used to recharge batterys.

        I believe that its purpose is being used to solve the problems of F1 processionals due to Ayrton Sennas death and the over reaction to the dangers of the sport which ultimately ruined many tracks by putting in chicanes at many of the most challenging places.

        F1 became safer and soon few could pass at all and that factor had to be adjusted. Racefans complained and the rules makers came up with this solution called KERS. Now with enough money and technology this system might help a team get into or out of a corner.

        If needing power is the solution to enabling someone to pass then just give them slightly bigger engines. Simple as that and would benefit all teams at the same time and not hurt the small teams who can’t build the technology to stay competitive.

        KERS is a poor F1 decision to stay competitive with INDYCARS “push to pass” system where it is used to gain advantage on somewhat a limited fashion. Not to be undone by the lower levels of racing some brilliant minds devised KERS and it serves no benefits to Formula One.

        So it doesn’t matter whether Williams system is more reliable than REDBULLS , the whole concept is wrong for racing.

        1. Get with the program, times have changed! KERS is here to stay and Senna isn’t coming back.

          1. I guess that getting with the program means that I should accept without question rule changes that are poorly thought out and make little sense. If you believe that DRS and how it is used should continue without question makes me wonder how you can justify it. KERS is another issue along with the Pirelli candy tires. All of which need to be modified to provide benefits. Real fans support what I have said.

          2. poorly thought out

            Passing difficult + Green is good

            … Least they did something about it eh?

        2. but it works if hrt have it and virgin don’t :P

  9. From what little I know Williams have been a pretty competitive team over the years and Virgin look likely to end the season on the bottom of the constructors for the second year running.

    So… congratulations for unfounded comment of the day!

    :D

  10. Good news for HRT and Williams too I guess, they should stand to benefit from this financially. They could do with a few extra quid!

  11. “our target is still to finish in the top ten in 2012”

    Is that as in 10th team (best of the backmarkers) or as in scoring points? I hope they mean the first.

    1. @xtophe I think they mean as in the constructors.

  12. We have grown as a team with Williams F1’s support and we are pleased to continue counting on them in the future, given their trajectory

    Now I’ve always liked Williams (even if I dislike some of the comments made by Mr. Parr recently) but I wouldn’t have brought up their “trajectory” as based on recent seasons it’s a downward one…just thought it was rather a funny choice of words..!!

    1. if he stays at williams he will be the death of the team. He’s the one who should be leaving not sam.

  13. At least they will have some power so that now it will take a bit long for the front runner to lap them.

  14. Yey the backrunners are becoming more advanced! I don’t see them improving though, we thought that last year and in Australia they didn’t even get to race, mainly because of finance I do believe?, either way it’s good that they are getting KRS which might close the gap between teams.

  15. Presumably HRT signed the deal with Williams hoping it’d move them closer on the grid to the former world champions….but they didn’t realise they’d stay put and it’d be Williams who’d be falling back….

  16. This is good news on several levels.

    Not only does it directly benefit both teams, but it’s shows that HRT are also funding their F1 effort successfully. Williams probably wouldn’t have extended let alone expanded the deal otherwise.

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