As seen below FB has sure made his point of view clear.

[QUOTE]Renault: KERS dangerous and expensive
By Edd Straw and Jonathan Noble
Monday, January 19th 2009, 21:23 GMT

Renault chiefs have launched a scathing attack on the introduction of KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems) in Formula One this year - claiming they are dangerous and too expensive. As teams continue preparations of the devices in pre-season testing, Renault team principal Flavio Briatore has labelled the use of them in Formula one as a 'terrible mistake'. And his technical director Bob Bell has expressed fears of a KERS accident this season - with perhaps a mechanic suffering an electric shock like happened to a BMW mechanic during testing last year.

Renault are scheduled to introduce their own KERS for the first race of the season in Australia, but that has not stopped Briatore and Bell criticising the idea of using them. Bell, who says the team are undecided yet on whether KERS will run in Australia, is fearful about the possibility of an incident with the systems this year. When asked at the launch of the team's new R29 in Portugal on Monday if he had any safety concerns about KERS, he said: "Very much so. It's unknown territory for us. "We are not used to seeing cars with high voltage stickers. I think there will be some accidents this year. It's inevitable. And you'll probably see some mechanics get nasty shocks. Let's hope it's no more than that. The same could be said of marshals. "The sport has done a very good job of trying to minimise the risk, to mechanics, technicians and trackside people, but there is still a risk. It's several hundred volts and the potential to be tens of amps, so it's pretty lethal. And it's DC (direct current), so if you hold it you cannot let go."

Briatore is deeply unhappy about the amount of money his team have had to spend on KERS, especially against the backdrop of the worldwide economic crisis. "I think it is a terrible mistake," said Briatore. "In the end Renault, Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari supply engines to other teams, and we are not making any money - it is costing us but we are doing it for the good of F1.

"We have the big reduction in the costs of engines, but in another way we have opened the door on something else. We don't know how much it is going to cost us in the end with development, and we don't know if it is dangerous or not - it looks like it is not 100 percent in control.

 

I happen to think it is totally cool and I hope there are some teams that make this recovery system a very effective racing benefit. I'm sure I cannot even come close to understanding the many dangers of this system, but if they can get it to work with out electrocuting or burning someone up then I'm all for developments like this.

I have been reading about the tension between some team principles because the system introduction date was voted to not be pushed back. Some teams need more development time and this is where the tensions are coming from. What I find really interesting about all this, BMW/Theissen is one of the teams/people pushing hard to make sure KERS stays on schedule, and Flavio/Renault is totally against it, however, even in all of that, BMW admits they may not even have KERS ready for the 1st race. I respect BMW for voting to keep the date, even though they know they might not even be able to make the date.

 

A ton of great stuff here, the KERS article and links is after the Bernie/money story at the top.

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2009/01/21/kers...ent-over-costs/

 

i think the KERS system development will be used as an excuse for under performing teams and drivers.. it will most certainly be the talk and possibly the "excuse" in the beginning of the season.

I do understand a bit of what Flav is saying though. With everything else teams and engineers have to ready for , for upcoming seasons, to add a completely new system which adds more weight, is very difficult. If its hurting the Renault team, then gosh, it will be catastrophic for backmarker teams then ? I think the FIA should have announced KERS for 2010 instead. Get a working model tested throught 2009 and then deploy it..

just my $.02

 

I can appreciate your point-of-view Simon.

The extension out to 2010 would have been a really wise idea, and I know part of my bias is having seen the video clip of that poor BMW mechanic being blown off his asss and flying through the air when the tested KERS system shocked him during '08 testing. As I recall the poor guy was in the hospital for a while.

The other thing that pops into my head is the whole electric spark discharge thing, when you add to it the refueling process. I have seen videos of regular people going up in a fireball with a little static electric charge while filling up a simple gas can.

I would hate to see someone taken out because this system is being rushed into production. But in the big picture, I think the whole idea is very cool, and I hope the power boost gained at discharge is enough to really make a performance advantage that can be seen by those of us in front of our TV. I just think watching how each driver may use this benefit once per lap will be iinteresting, who uses it where, and how...

 

i completely agree with everything that Flav says. among all the talk of cost cutting this and that, they introduce a new system like this to be developed in only a year? it doesn't make sense. any money they save from cost cutting gets dumped into KERS. I think overall it is a cool idea, but they should have given the teams 2 years to develop it at least. there is already talk of a standard KERS next year, so Flav is right, it is a waste for each team to develop one. why not jointly develop a standard KERS system right off the bat? sure KERS is optional, but you better believe every team is going to develop something even if the only reason is to see if it is a benefit to them.

 

Same chit, different year...

Remember the great cost cutting plan of dropping V10's for the V8's

 

Doug,

I'm also agreeing with FB's comments, particularly the part of it being a one year development cycle for a one year option. That of course, if its a standard system in 2010. Let those who want to bid out their product for 2010 develop, but it shouldn't be a 2009 system.

The problem with same shit different year is that they don't leave a spec alone for long enough to reap the benefits and costs savings. The V8s would be cheaper if they would freeze development and make it the spec for 5 years, not 1 or 2 then change it again.

 

Gary, I hear ya loud and clear, and agree

 

Now, let me redirect the question if I may, getting past the not cost cutting, rushed development, why do unique when next year could be a standardized technology issue, what do we think about the technology itself as it applies to F1 racing?

We are talking about storing up energy from braking forces that can be released maybe once per lap as a burst in power in like a push to pass button - what do we think of that part?

For me, I just think it is totally cool. I want my future hybrid car to have a feature like this. I would like to say I want my new Ferrari sportscar to have a feature like this, but I just looked in my wallet...