While I'm on a roll I'd like to predict the demise of all flywheel KERS for the following reasons.
Main one being, when adapted for road car use a flywheel cannot be left for 2 weeks then driven off like a petrol car, SO batteries or an alternative energy source will be required anyway.
When building in all the architecture for, lets say, battery based power storage, car manufacturers are not going to then install a second completly seperate system like a flywheel, they'll simply throw more batteries in there, they will already be ordering them in huge quantities anyway right?
Developing better battery cells, power controllers and charging systems is going to be a priority for the people who pay for F1.
I also happen to think that the complex undertaking of mass producing a 100,000rpm flywheel in a bomb proof vacuum sealed case will be a short lived venture for car manufacturers, if it ever gets off the ground. There already factories all over the world churning out batteries aren't there? Where are the factories producing 50 million flywheels a year going to come from?
Plus, how much weight do you think the high speed flywheel manufacturers association has in the corridors of power... as much as Mr Samsung or Mr Panasonic?
Plus battery dosen't have a gyroscopic effect and, within reason can be installed in a great variety of shapes and positions which makes the whole thing easier (and cheaper) to package (or at least I'm guessing thats the way R&D depts would look at it).
It a sad shame.
That and a certain red car looks like it will be using batteries for the '09 season, meaning flywheels will only be tolerated if they cannot be blamed for a lack of ferrari victories
Only joking of couse!
What does everyone else reckon? Is the flywheel the Betamax of the powertrain world?
