The FOTA teams have voted to push for the controversial Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems to be dropped by the FIA from 2010, following a long and largely disappointing effort to get them introduced across the Formula One grid this year.
The decision by the Formula One Teams' Association to aim for KERS to be removed from the 2010 regulations is ostensibly on cost grounds, with the troublesome systems already having cost a fair amount of money in development.Although every team was asked to trial a KERS device in 2009, only Ferrari, McLaren, Renault and BMW Sauber have ever got theirs to a race weekend, and only Ferrari and McLaren chose to run with it in Turkey, with all four teams intermittently dropping their systems for the odd race so far this year.
The move to push for the abandonment of the KERS idea was not the wish of every team in the FOTA coven, with BMW Sauber admitting that they voted against the move. But the majority pushed for it to be dropped, and the dissenters have decided to go along with that view.
BMW boss Mario Theissen admitted that he'd been on the 'nay' side, saying that: "We have voted in favour of KERS but, as with all the other FOTA decisions so far, we will go with the majority."
The rules on KERS in 2010 are somewhat vague, unsurprisingly, but the gist is that KERS will be allowed, but still not mandatory. Though the FIA may not move to outlaw it based on FOTA's decision, the teams can now use their agreement to ensure the technology is gone.
Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali insisted that scrapping a development aspect that had cost millions of pounds already for most of the teams was in actual fact a great example of cost-cutting.
"In terms of the discussion we had within FOTA, we are talking about cost saving for the new teams as well," Domenicali insisted, "We are the only one together with McLaren who are using it. We invested a lot and we always said that it is difficult for the supporters to understand why there are some cars with KERS and some cars without KERS, so if you have a total logical approach, if we are all together fine then it is better not to have it."
The news that KERS is set to be dropped will delight Eddie Jordan, who has developed an almost psychotic hatred of the system. Though dropping of the devices leaves F1` without a token environmental effort to wave in the face of people who claim that the sport is setting a poor example for the planet.
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