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The Williams Flywheel KERS (7 posts)

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sw6569 said 2 years, 6 months ago:

So…what ever happened to this idea and will we see a return of it next year?

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Hare said 2 years, 6 months ago:

It’s currently being used by Porsche in their new road car, and yes we wil.

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Icthyes said 2 years, 6 months ago:

I heard somewhere that the KERS rules as they are favour the battery system. So not only do we have the ridiculous limitations placed on KERS, we’ll only have one kind because of them. And several manufacturers will be pouring millions into something that produces nigh on the same performance. The rule makers are such muppets.

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codesurge said 2 years, 6 months ago:

I was fortunate enough to have a chance to visit the Williams garage in Singapore and had a quick chat with one of the engineers about the future of their flywheel KERS.

What they basically told me was that the packaging for the flywheel KERS isn’t nearly as space efficient as that of a battery KERS – i.e. it’s a better match for GT/endurance racers like the GT3 Hybrid, but not as good a fit for the demanding space/weight/CofG requirements of F1. As such, they are looking into commercial and alternative applications for their flywheel KERS while going with battery KERS in F1 (they declined to state whether it would be developed in-house or a customer system).

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Icthyes said 2 years, 6 months ago:

Thanks for the insight codesurge!

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sw6569 said 2 years, 6 months ago:

Wow thats very interesting! its a shame really, I really thought Williams were onto something. I also thought that the flywheel was supposed to be lighter – though I wasn’t aware of its space requirements.

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Katy said 2 years, 6 months ago:

Oh I was wondering about this too. Thanks for the info codesurge :)

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