Adrian Newey: KERS not a speciality of Red Bull Racing R&D department – Formula 1 news
Formula 1 Red Bull team’s technical director Adrian Newey has admitted that the Kinetic Energy Recovery System is not a speciality of the company’s Research and Development department.
Newey added that Red Bull adopted a KERS system which was a revise of Renault Marelli system used a few years ago, which did not pay off and now it cannot be removed completely.
KERS is the only department in which the Red Bull team are not masters yet in the 2011 Formula 1 season. Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber have not been able to use those extra horsepowers to their advantage in any race.
Newey admits the failure and explains that the Red Bull company has specialised in the aero package and not in the KERS booster.
“It is not our forte; we are an aero chassis manufacturing group rather than a KERS group. The department is quite small, with hindsight probably a little too small, and there is a lot of inertia to these things. It's quite difficult to react quickly to
a problem,” explained Newey.
Right from the start of the season, Red Bull drivers were suffering with the KERS booster and many a times the team has told them not to use it during the race.
As the International Automobile Federation (FIA) has directed the teams to use it in every race regardless of its functionality, the Red Bull team is carrying an extra luggage in their car without which their performance will be monstrous.
Newey commented on the issue and said, “It is not proving easy to completely eliminate it. We hope we have learnt how to manage it, but we are learning. KERS is a complicated project that needs a lot of research and a lot of development.”
Although Vettel was able to use the KERS in the Spanish Grand Prix, still Newey thinks that their system is much more complicated.
As the Monaco Grand Prix is around the corner on May 29, 2011, it will be interesting to see where Red Bull end up with their KERS system.
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