pob wrote:I thought Ross Brawn had confirmed that Mercedes would be be using a development of Honda's KERS (which wasn't used with the 2009 Brawn as it wasn't compatible [not enough room because of the Mercedes engine placement]).
I remember that this myth was corrected by Scarbs. I just don't remember the URL. It will not work because IMO it was the positioning of the battery in the nose of the Honda KERS which isn't compatible with the high noses we currently see.
Mercedes GP, McLaren and FI will definitely use the MBHPE Ltd. KERS system according to N.Haug.
Norbert Haug wrote:And there is the return of KERS following a one-year absence at the end of the 2009 season when our Mercedes system recorded a historic first race win. This will play a massive role amongst all of the performance-related components, both for the additional power and for the strategic options it makes available. As in 2009, it is our ambition that Mercedes-Benz builds and runs the best hybrid system and that all three teams which use it benefit significantly from this.
andrew wrote:I can see KERS making very little to no difference as the drivers will for the most part be deploying KERS in much the same locations on each track. I guess the intention is good in the theory of saving fuel, though carrying the added weight of the KERS unit would surely increase fuel consumption. Basically KERS is just a push to pass gimmick which only masks over the real problems which restrict the amount of overtaking. I'm not sold on KERS yet.
Adrian Newey's judgement on KERS is different and I would be inclined to follow his expertise.
Source
Adrian Newey wrote:Packaging is a challenge with KERS and the big challenge is to try and come up with a solution that doesn't compromise the aerodynamics too much, otherwise you drop the performance benefit that you get from putting KERS on.
We are here to try hard to try and develop it through the pre-season so that we are confident that it does give us performance. I think one of the things that came clearly in 2009 was that the start-line performance of KERS was important.
Fortunately the team that we were battling with, which was Brawn that year, also didn't have KERS so neither had an advantage over the other in that sense, so this year I think no doubt with McLaren and Ferrari and Mercedes having KERS and being extremely competitive, then we need to get it to work if for no other reason than simply performance off the line.