The Red Bull Racing team's dodgy KERS device is "getting better and better" according to team boss Christian Horner, despite the power boost unit causing problems for both of their drivers again during the Chinese GP.
Despite setting the pace performance-wise in the early stages of 2011 with their RB7 car, the team's Kinetic Energy Recovery System remains something of a thorn in Red Bull's side.
Neither driver was able to run the device in the season opener in Australia, while Mark Webber's boost button has been unavailable in both the Malaysian and Chinese GPs as well.
Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel has started both of the last two races with KERS available at the start, but has been forced to stop using the device for various reasons during the race.
And after the race in China, Vettel suggested that the lack of KERS had hindered him in what proved to be a futile attempt to stave off McLaren's Lewis Hamilton for the race win.
"We had some trouble in the race and for the majority of the race, unfortunately, we had to do without KERS, so the first stint was fine but then we lost it fairly early after that," the German explained.
He added: "Yes, it's a big hit, obviously. Here you have the long straight, the back straight, where it has a big effect, so it surely doesn't help if you try to pull away."
Meanwhile, Webber suggested that the issues over KERS went beyond the mere lack of boost, saying that the constant need to repair the devices had 'disrupted' his weekend.
"It's not only a performance thing but it's also incredibly disrupting in the garage," he growled, "My car was rebuilt about four times this weekend.
"It makes it so much harder for them in terms of making mistakes, when you open a car up and put it back together all the time, it's not easy."
Webber lost out on virtually the entire final practice session due to repairs being made to his KERS, and went on to qualify down in 18th place.
But team boss Christian Horner said that he was confident that the caffeinated team was on top of the issues, and said that the team would prepare an upgraded system for the next race in Turkey in three weeks time.
"We have got another upgrade of KERS coming for Turkey," he was quoted as saying by the Autosport website on Monday "It is getting better and better as we get more understanding of the system and more mileage on it.
"So I am confident that the niggly issues that we have with it, we have fixes in the pipeline."
Webber added that it was vital for the team's 2011 title challenge that they put the early issues with KERS to bed as soon as possible.
"McLaren have a huge amount of experience with Mercedes from 2009 and they're doing a good job of it," he lamented, "And that's not an excuse, it means that we have to work harder, we have to work as cleverly as we can and as fast as we can."
He added: "We have awesome guys on the case. As I say, with the limited experience we have, that's the way it is and we're still going OK in the constructors' championship, I think, so let's regroup, get to Turkey and work hard on it."
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
