KERS: Eco-friendly or Lethal Weapon?

[motormania]

I have to admit, when Max (what's wrong with SM with 5 prostitutes) Mosley first talked about the FIA wanting to introduce the KERS system into F1 I thought it was a huge white elephant just to appease the environmental lobby groups and to try and make out that F1 was actually a very green sport - come on Max, slap me on the ass and tell me you really didn't believe all that marketing spin BS you were saying?

It now seems that my un-educated thoughts are starting to show up...

In the past couple of weeks we have had 2 potentially major incidents away from the pressures of a race weekend.

Red Bull's factory was evacuated when a battery failed and leaked what could have been hazardous vapours and now we have had a BMW mechanic hospitalised after getting an electric shock off the car as it came into the pits. What next?

How safe is this technology?

Even senior figures within the sport are now starting to question if KERS is ready for the sport in 2009. Toyota are saying it will not be ready for 2009, even Ross Brawn is saying that the advantage of using the technology is not very significant.

When you have the FIA wanting to promote a safe and cost effective sport, why oh why then do we see teams having to spend a lot of time, money and energy on a system that many believe to offer very little performance advantage, and what already looks like being a very unstable technology once you enter the heat of a race weekend.

I think this has the potential to back-fire big time on the FIA, and more importantly Max (ooooh - slap me again babe) Mosley.

I've also read recently that there is no clear link between how the technology being worked on by F1 teams will translate into the normal road car industry - so the FIA can not even use this thinly disguised well trodden marketing BS to try and strengthen their cause for why they wanted to introduce KERS in the first place.

If I was a driver sitting in a 2009 car with KERS onboard, I'd be bloody scared.

PS. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the battery technology that is being used is LiPo (Lithium Polymer Cells) and that's what we use in radio control car circles now - and it has been well documented about how careful you must be when handling these cells. Anyone who misuses this technology is in for a nasty shock - take a look:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KpUXuEg3fNE

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ0SNESIkWk

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WM0g_XLVFQE&feat...

It must be noted that these videos are not from someone adding any explosive material to the cells. This is what happens through short-circuiting, over charging or through massive forces exerted on the cells from a heavy crash - and this is radio controlled models - imagine the forces involved with an F1 car!!

I really think the FIA have screwed up this time, and I for one just hope I'm 100% wrong with everything in this post, otherwise F1 faces a dark day again very soon.

[kevin ritson]

Motorsport is dangerous - it says so on every ticket and on the fences. Mechanics get run over all the time, it's impossible to say a driver will never be killed again.

F1 has always been about prototype technology (and even then some people have said F1 KERS lags behind road car development) - I don't see this being any less safe than Toyota's rear suspension, for example.

[MrKipling43]

Crikey, those battery videos are pretty spectacular.

I can absolutely see what you're saying, but given how obsessed by safety F1 is, there's no way they'd allow a technology that was dangerous (or, should I say, Volatile) into the racers.

[skinny]

a lot of the teams would have called for something like this tho as they use F1 as a demonstration of their technology / capability, and to show a (tenuous) link between their road cars and F1 cars. honda, toyota, bmw, all use some sort of hybridisation.

but afaik it isn't mandatory to use kers next year, teams have the option of doing so, and it will be limited in the first year of use in terms of storage and release of energy.

i think it's a good idea, allowing some new ideas back into F1. might help a little with energy density of conventional hybrid systems but overall certainly in F1 it will not make a positive environmental impact - the manufacturing and disposal of these systems is a disaster in terms of materials adn carbon footprint

i still think better would be to set a fuel allowance per race that reduced every season down to a given level and let the engine designers get on with it.

[StevieBee]

The transfer of fuel from storage to car is an inherently dangerous activity and one that attracted similar concerns 15 years ago yet they seem to have been able to engineer solutions to mitigate these risks.

Glock and Kubica are alive as a result of "engineering out" inherent risks.

Is this not one of F1’s strong points – the ability to engineer effective solutions to difficult problems?

[Derek Smith]

StevieBee said:

The transfer of fuel from storage to car is an inherently dangerous activity and one that attracted similar concerns 15 years ago yet they seem to have been able to engineer solutions to mitigate these risks.

I'm not sure Verstappen would agree. I know it was a case of Benetton cheating, but that doesn't stop the burns hurting any the less nor limit the threat to the spectators in the boxes above the pits.

[Dr JonboyG]

On that subject, a mechanic working for De Ferran's ALMS team got badly burned this weekend at Mid Ohio when something went wrong during refueling. It was pretty disconcerting to see a large cloud of black smoke rise up from the pit lane.

[FourWheelDrift]

MrKipling43 said:

given how obsessed by safety F1 is, there's no way they'd allow a technology that was dangerous (or, should I say, Volatile) into the racers.

Oh I dunno, they let Montoya in.

[flemke]

A good overview, starting with McLaren's KERS project of a decade ago, which the FIA banned:

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2008/04/17/problems-wit...

[peanutjb]

Just for reference; the alternative interpretation of the acronym K.E.R.S. is:

Kills Everybody Really Spectaculary


HTH

[BoRED S2upid]

In the Months Evo magazine Ferrari allready planning on how to put their KERS Technology into future models of road cars. Does this mean Ferrari are ahead of the game in F1?.