Mclaren KERS---small

[pies]

Im surprised as to how small their KERS system is,hard to believe it generates 80bhp.I doubt it weighs 30kg

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula...

[woof]

cheers for that - very good piece

[elster]

Yeah I was glad I watched the forum until the end.

Great for Merc to give a little description.

[Scuffers]

why would you think it would be bigger?

they are only allowed to store a max of 400Kj, that's only 111.1W/h, ie. 147x 3.3V 2.3A/h cells, using off the shelf nanophosphate cells, that would be ~10Kg's and about 3L volume.

the heavy bit is the alternator/motor, and both it the battery and the controller need cooling (water).

[mattikake]

The forum is getting better by the race IMO. Might even start bothering to ask questions... Something to get DC and EJ at each other. I'd love to see DC could give EJ a good licking in the ring.

Anyway...

KERS. Surely the teams should be free to develop as much as they can from it than this artificial 80Bhp limit? Like the old turbo systems. I mean, eventually everyone will have KERS so all will have the sme advantage cancelling out it's effect, which has been reasonable so far for creating overtaking. It only is good for overtaking atm because not everyone has it and the non-KERS cars don't have much of a chance on the straights, but more under braking/cornering.

Or they need to restrict use to about 20 times per race.

Or just forget it altogether, but that would mean F1 will fail in it's honourable side-effect to develop technologies road cars will eventually use.

After Bahrain it's clear the overtaking working group have failed to come up with a design that allows cars to get really close. They need to adjust the regulations still further - reduce front wing by 50% (or allow only a single plane), rear wing by 25%, increase tyre contact patches by 25%, lower ride heights and allow for uniform flatter bottoms to cars.

[davislove]

I was actually surprised how big the component parts were, it looks like there's more than 30Kg involved but clearly they've done a good job with materials

[rabw]

mattikake said:

.... lower ride heights and allow for uniform flatter bottoms to cars.

Why did some old F1 cars spark on the ground as they went along? Can we get that back?

[deadslow]

I actually thought KERS went a long way to ruining the race today. LH's start distorted the race and robbed us of a great JB/SB battle.

[elster]

deadslow said:

I actually thought KERS went a long way to ruining the race today. LH's start distorted the race and robbed us of a great JB/SB battle.

Bourdais?

I think the race panned out nicely. Shows the advantages and disadvantages of KERS.

I don't think KERS ruined the race at all.

[deadslow]

elster said:

deadslow said:

I actually thought KERS went a long way to ruining the race today. LH's start distorted the race and robbed us of a great JB/SB battle.

Bourdais?

I think the race panned out nicely. Shows the advantages and disadvantages of KERS.

I don't think KERS ruined the race at all.

Yeah, sorry, SV, obviously. Catapulting an otherwise slow car into the podium battle was a negative for me.

[elster]

deadslow said:

elster said:

deadslow said:

I actually thought KERS went a long way to ruining the race today. LH's start distorted the race and robbed us of a great JB/SB battle.

Bourdais?

I think the race panned out nicely. Shows the advantages and disadvantages of KERS.

I don't think KERS ruined the race at all.

Yeah, sorry, SV, obviously. Catapulting an otherwise slow car into the podium battle was a negative for me.

What are you on about? The McLaren is improving race by race. The car isn't that slow.

But how did LH interfere with the result?

[FourWheelDrift]

Seeing the Mercedes KERS system makes me wonder why Williams have gone the flywheel way.

[deadslow]

elster said:

deadslow said:

elster said:

deadslow said:

I actually thought KERS went a long way to ruining the race today. LH's start distorted the race and robbed us of a great JB/SB battle.

Bourdais?

I think the race panned out nicely. Shows the advantages and disadvantages of KERS.

I don't think KERS ruined the race at all.

Yeah, sorry, SV, obviously. Catapulting an otherwise slow car into the podium battle was a negative for me.

What are you on about? The McLaren is improving race by race. The car isn't that slow.

But how did LH interfere with the result?

Never said he interfered with the result, just that using an electronic gizmo to park ahead of faster cars is a pain.

And, the McLaren is SLOW.

[flemke]

deadslow said:

elster said:

deadslow said:

elster said:

deadslow said:

I actually thought KERS went a long way to ruining the race today. LH's start distorted the race and robbed us of a great JB/SB battle.

Bourdais?

I think the race panned out nicely. Shows the advantages and disadvantages of KERS.

I don't think KERS ruined the race at all.

Yeah, sorry, SV, obviously. Catapulting an otherwise slow car into the podium battle was a negative for me.

What are you on about? The McLaren is improving race by race. The car isn't that slow.

But how did LH interfere with the result?

Never said he interfered with the result, just that using an electronic gizmo to park ahead of faster cars is a pain.

And, the McLaren is SLOW.

The McLaren is currently mid-pack in terms of overall speed. Whether one would call that "slow" would be semantic.
To say that the car is "otherwise slow", implying that without KERS it wouldn't be even as competitive as it is, overlooks the fact that the car was designed around KERS in the first place.
If they had not made the compromises that they did in order to accomodate KERS, the package would be faster than a KERS-designed car that lacked KERS.

[deadslow]

flemke said:

The McLaren is currently mid-pack in terms of overall speed. Whether one would call that "slow" would be semantic.

Well. I'd call it slow, and I bet LH would do the same.

flemke said:

To say that the car is "otherwise slow", implying that without KERS it wouldn't be even as competitive as it is, overlooks the fact that the car was designed around KERS in the first place.

Correct, its a rocket powered chicane.

flemke said:

If they had not made the compromises that they did in order to accomodate KERS, the package would be faster than a KERS-designed car that lacked KERS.

Yeah, who cares?

LH held up Vettel and prevented us from watching the top drivers and teams race wheel to wheel.

[Hammerwerfer]

pies said:

Im surprised as to how small their KERS system is,hard to believe it generates 80bhp.I doubt it weighs 30kg

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula...

Damned video only works in the UK.

[pies]

deadslow said:

And, the McLaren is SLOW.

In this instance I don't care,im just surprised how small,and 'simple' the unit is.I would like to know how much power could be generated if it didn't have artifical limits

[mattikake]

deadslow said:

elster said:

deadslow said:

elster said:

deadslow said:

I actually thought KERS went a long way to ruining the race today. LH's start distorted the race and robbed us of a great JB/SB battle.

Bourdais?

I think the race panned out nicely. Shows the advantages and disadvantages of KERS.

I don't think KERS ruined the race at all.

Yeah, sorry, SV, obviously. Catapulting an otherwise slow car into the podium battle was a negative for me.

What are you on about? The McLaren is improving race by race. The car isn't that slow.

But how did LH interfere with the result?

Never said he interfered with the result, just that using an electronic gizmo to park ahead of faster cars is a pain.

And, the McLaren is SLOW.

Sounds like you want a return to the Schumi era to me.

Isn't one driver being able to out-perform others in faster cars the essence of racing? If you want the fastest car to win all the time, why not end the race after quali? Where it will be as boring as hell.

[zac510]

deadslow said:

And, the McLaren is SLOW.

Is the irony of your nickname and your tirade against the McLaren visible to you?

[deadslow]

mattikake said:

Sounds like you want a return to the Schumi era to me.

You couldn't be more wrong.

mattikake said:

Isn't one driver being able to out-perform others in faster cars the essence of racing?

If you class pressing the KERS button as performing, then why not let them fight it out on sony playstations?

mattikake said:

If you want the fastest car to win all the time, why not end the race after quali? Where it will be as boring as hell.

This is not what I want. I simply think the race was degraded today by LH holding up the fast cars/drivers.