The Red Bull Racing team will run with their Kinetic Energy Recovery System on their cars at the Malaysian Grand Prix in two weeks time, according to team boss Christian Horner, despite the team eschewing the devices in Australia.
Red Bull provoked a mini-rumour mill in the Australian GP paddock after they were seen to not be running KERS in the qualifying session on Saturday.
But despite rumours of special 'mini-KERS' systems, the team confirmed after the race that they had dropped the technology after Friday practice and run without the power boost for the rest of the weekend.
But Horner confirmed to the UK Guardian newspaper that the Austrian team would fit KERS to their cars in Malaysia in two weeks time, adding that the team were "keen" to ensure that they were not wrong-footed at the fast Kuala Lumpur track.
"We will run KERS in Malaysia," he affirmed confidently, "It was a very marginal decision not to run it [in Australia]."
He added: "In Malaysia there is a long run to the first turn and we are keen to get it on the car there."
Horner's comments were backed up by RBR motorsport advisor Helmut Marko, who told the German RTL television channel that: "I guess that we will use [KERS] at tracks that have a long straight."
Australian GP race winner Sebastian Vettel, meanwhile, told the Bild newspaper that: "[KERS is a] fundamental tool...We're working on having it on the car."
Despite the lack of a KERS device throughout qualifying and the race, Vettel enjoyed a huge advantage over the rest of the field in Melbourne, taking pole position by over eight tenths of a second and winning the race by nearly 20 seconds.
He eventually finished well clear of McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton, though the British driver had appeared to be able to keep pace with Vettel in the first stint before the undertray of his car picked up damage that restricted his performance.
But Marko insisted that Vettel had been simply pacing himself early in the race, and could have gone quicker had he felt the need to.
"Sebastian based himself on his opponents, setting his pace according to the competition, especially Hamilton," Marko bragged to RTL.
He went on: "We just wanted the gap for a pit stop or in case the safety car came out. In the end he was just protecting the tyres. We still have some more in [the car]."
Marko also, slightly surprisingly, defended Mark Webber over his poor Australian GP performance. The second Red Bull driver could not match Vettel's pace, and ended up down in 5th place.
But Marko suggested that a 'chassis problem' had caused the Australian driver problems throughout the race.
"Mark had some problems with the chassis," Marko shrugged, "With him, neither the hard nor the soft tyres really worked. His tyre wear was also significantly greater than Sebastian's."
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