Formula 1 News

Ferrari critical on KERS technology 

In an interview with Italian magazine Autosprint, Scuderia Ferrari’s vice president Piero Ferrari, has criticised the KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems) technology – set to be introduced in F1 next year – by stating that with such introduction the F1 teams will have to spend more money in research and racing will not be improved.

“We should reflect on many of the technical and sporting decisions taken in Formula 1 lately,” the Italian told to Autosprint. “Engines were frozen with the result that all of them now run at 19,000 revolutions, so there’s no difference in power nor revs, and therefore there’s no way you can take advantage of a possible overrevving to try to overtake,” he added.

“We should have done something similar to what NASCAR has done: to set some limits in the regulations, while allowing for researching and re-designing. The way the regulations are right now, we can’t re-design a single part to improve it. It’s excessive. Ferrari have great engine guys twiddling their thumbs”, he continued.

“By contrast, they make us spend time and money to design the KERS, for which we can’t evaluate the costs precisely because it’s a new technology. It’s also based on knowledge unknown to traditional engine guys, like high-capacity batteries and high-performance electrical engines, for which you need specialized engineers from outside the motoring world. To acquire that know-how will cause high levels of spending over the years, it’s not the best solution to reduce costs.”

“Engine recovery is fine, but not this way. Too many different systems to recover energy have been permitted. They need to be limited, otherwise costs could go sky-high, with the risk of having to cut drastically on other areas to limit spending, as was done with engines, revs, and electronics. This way we risk to transform an F1 car into a GP2 car, and that must not happen.”

Despite Piero Ferrari’s statements, seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher has backed the KERS technology by saying that it’s ‘very important’ for Formula One.

“Ferrari’s road car department and other road car companies will benefit hugely from it, and the environment will as well,” Schumacher told The Times.

“People say F1 should do more but you cannot change the world in one day. It’s not possible. You have to do it in steps that are achievable and you have to understand the problem. I think that it has been understood, this issue, and formula one is reacting to it,” Schumacher added.