Not sad that KERS will be gone... just another silly chapter in F1 history that underlines the sums of $$$ spent (wasted) on developing systems/components that interfere with actual sheer racing.

http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/news/2009/06/08/...-kers-for-2010/

 

I dont think it is that silly, just wrong thing to introduce with how the economy is and the manufactures trying to reduce costs. I don't think it would have cost a lot this season if the aero reg was the same as last. The changing of rules is causing the manufactures to spend loads money.

 

Well, the technology itself is not silly, I have no problem with F1 being the technologies testbed. Sorry if my initial post sounded otherwise.

You are right, it was the timing that was the worst part. Also the fact that it was optional this year made it confusing and added an inequality to the field from a system/component standpoint.

The funniest part is that the front running teams this year are those without KERS whatsoever Brawn and Newey are genius indeed for designing their cars to run so well without needing to tap into the potential advantage of the extra horsepower-on-tap. I guess they saw through how the downside of running the cars with KERS just was too risky and not worth it (extra weight that could be just deadweight as seen on Kimi's car sometimes; and the braking characteristics differences, etc.)

 

As I understand it, the KERS and non-KERS cars actually weigh the same. It's just that the non-KERS cars have more flexibility about where they put that weight.

 

I thought the KERS cars weighed about 80lbs more.

 

Early in the season the KERS cars had a small weight penalty (in the 20-60lb range) but now after some more development they are all pretty close.

I can't say I'm sad to see them go. The problem was not that they were too heavy or complicated (though anyone familiar with Mr. Murphy and his laws knows that adding complexity is just an opportunity for more things to break), the problem was that they were heavily regulated. 80 horsepower boost for 8 seconds... why not allow teams to store as much energy as they want, instead of only 8 seconds worth per lap? Then the regenerative braking and energy storage technologies will be developed (for performance instead of merely lightness, since every team is already making 80hp for 8 seconds per lap) and race cars will be relevant to the real world again. And, there would be different strategies available for going fast, because a heavy KERS system might be able to make 80hp throughout the lap, but would weigh, 40, 80, 100lbs more than the lighter, less powerful cars. But that would be too expensive, says Max Mosley. God forbid we make the engineers compete with eachother! And to think that is what half of F1 used to be about.

Probably 95% of what is known about cars comes directly from race car testing and development. As an engineer, that makes today's situation in F1 downright depressing.

 

The Kers and non-Kers cars weight the same. All cars have weight ballasts to help them adjust the car's balance and bring them up to the minimum weight required. The downside of Kers is that Kers cars have less weight ballasts to move around, not that they are heavier overall.

 

Thanks for helping me correct and clarify my point about KERS and weight

 

x millions!

 

Good riddance. KERS is a botched attempt at a stupid idea (Power2Pass).

Now get rid of the retarded tire rule (mandated use of suck tires for a stint).

And FIX the formula such that similar-speed cars can actually race with and pass one another on merit (i.e., not due to a powerboost button or one competitor being handicapped with shite tires) occasionally.

Hint: flat bottoms and stepped flat bottoms were an extraordinarily bad idea. so was a bigger front wing this year.