Red Bull boss Christian Horner confident of bringing KERS for Malaysian Grand Prix – Formula 1 news
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was confident that his team would be able to run on the Kinetic Energy Recovery System during the second race of the 2011 Formula 1 season, the Malaysian Grand Prix.
The season opener was held at Albert Park, Melbourne in Australia. All teams will be headed to Sepang in Malaysia for the next event, which will take place from 8 – 10 April, 2011.
Although Horner wanted the KERS for the next race, he said, “It didn't hurt us too much [to run without KERS] at the last race, but it is, you have to remember, a free extra 80 horsepower, so over a lap it's effectively free lap time of anything between
0.3-0.4s.”
He further added, “Obviously the motivation and desire is to have it onto the car as quickly as possible, but we won't compromise the performance of the car or the potential reliability of the car if we feel that the system isn't race-sturdy yet.”
During the first race weekend, the reigning champions decided not to use the KERS, as it had some reliability issues for them. However, this did not affect the performance of the Red Bull car, especially that of Sebastian Vettel, who won the race comprehensively.
The entire race weekend was dominated by the young German, who became the youngest Formula 1 champion in 2010. Vettel could not have asked for a better start to his title defence, as rivals McLaren and Ferrari appeared to be far behind the 2010 champion.
Although one Red Bull driver enjoyed the race thoroughly, his teammate Mark Webber did not have the most ideal start to his new campaign. The Australian was looking forward to the race at home and win the season opener, but he failed to impress and only
managed a fifth place finish behind Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.
The Australian Grand Prix is not the ideal race to judge the pace and competitiveness of the cars, as it is a semi-street circuit. The real picture will be revealed after the Malaysian GP, which will be the first race on a complete racetrack.
Considering the longer straights of Sepang, Red Bull and all the other teams realise the importance of the KERS. Vettel will need all the systems in his car to be fully functional before he heads to the next race otherwise it would be difficult for him to
win.
Other than the KERS, one more factor will play a huge part in the outcome of the Malaysian Grand Prix: tyre degradation. It was not much of an issue in Melbourne, but conditions in Sepang would be much hotter. A two-stop strategy might not be enough for
the teams and they would have to come up with better strategies.
Rain is also a huge factor when it comes to the Malaysian Grand Prix. Wet conditions are expected during the entire race weekend and the fans will get the opportunity to witness a thrilling race.
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