In the latest part of the KERS experiment's slow crawl into the box marked "Yeah, that wasn't such a good idea really, was it?", BMW Sauber have announced that they have ditched their own battery system entirely.
The BMW team has been among the most vocal supporters of the Kinetic Energy Recovery System technology in F1, and the team were the only ones to vote against abandoning it in a discussion last year. But it has decided to shelve their unit in favour of developing their recalcitrant F1.09 car in other areas.The KERS devices have been an unmitigated disaster in F1, with only four teams (Ferrari, McLaren, Renault and BMW themselves) ever running their devices at races this year, and then only in sporadic races. This weekend at Silverstone, only Ferrari will use the technology. The FOTA members voted to ditch the systems for 2010 in a meeting earlier this year,
BMW boss Mario Theissen insisted that it had been a difficult decision to make, but that the team had decided to focus on their aerodynamic package, introduced in the Spanish Grand Prix, instead.
"We evaluated different alleys, proceeding with KERS or proceeding on the aero side and what could we do with no KERS on board," Theissen apologised yesterday, "We had made some significant progress on the aero side which does not allow to fit KERS, and we have taken a decision just a few days ago to no more run KERS this year because we see a more promising alley in developing the aero."
Despite the apparent failure of KERS, Theissen insists that some good has come from the development of the systems.
"I would not say the technology is a flop, just the opposite," he insisted dubiously, "Given the very short development time it has been a huge success to get it up and running reliably and our system really works fine. We didn't have any flaws, not even in Malaysia in the torrential rain. It is depending on the set of regulations you have.
"If you want to push an innovation then you have to fully focus on it. If it is not mandatory to have the system on board, then now KERS is basically out-performed on the aero side. And I have to say what we have achieved at least within BMW has been transferred already to the road car side.
"Our engineers are currently supporting the road car R&D department and that will continue for quite some time because we have learned an awful lot which is applicable to not just hybrid cars but also electric vehicles and conventional cars, because a battery is on any car."
The FOTA 'no' vote earlier in the year means that KERS is almost certain to be abandoned totally, and Renault have also effectively mothballed their own project, meaning that only Ferrari and McLaren will continue to run it in races this season.
Theissen believed that even if KERS remained in it's current optional guise in the 2010 rulebook, no teams would bother pursuing it.
"I would say if it isn't made mandatory it will disappear," he said. "That is just natural. It is a pity in my view because this has been a unique chance to really position F1 as a technology carrier, as a pioneer of innovative technology, and it would have been very good in the current economic climate for F1 as a whole."
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