Sam Michael: Team Williams expected to feature the flywheel KERS in 2012
Team Williams is expected to keep its “flywheel KERS” in 2012. In the current season (2011) the team are going to use a battery-based system in order to use KERS on the FW33.
KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) is a device which converts heat energy generated by the car into kinetic energy before storing it for later use. After a certain amount of energy has been stored in the device, the driver can use that energy later on
in order to give his car a sort of a boost.
In order to use this device, power needs to be stored and most of the teams use a battery-based system in order to do that, rather than a flywheel that was used in 2009 when KERS was introduced to the sport. However, since Williams did not use the flywheel
technology during the pre-season test sessions this year, it seems that they won’t be using it in the 2011 season.
A flywheel is a device that has a significant amount of inertia that enables it to store energy in it. Williams’ concept of flywheel has been developed for racing by the Williams Hybrid Power (WHP) and it has been used on a Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid and after
its testing, the team’s technical director Sam Michael stated that the team will consider it for its 2012 Formula 1 car.
“We did consider a flywheel for this car, it was very close but unfortunately the packaging stopped us doing that to start with. Obviously WHP works on flywheels in other industries, but we also haven't discounted introducing it on this car at some point.
It would be very unlikely we'll do it in 2011, but it will definitely be on the cards again for 2012, flywheel versus battery,” he said at the launch of the FW33’s new livery.
However, it is going to be interesting to see how the teams use KERS in their respective cars as it is expected that KERS and movable rear wings would make racing more entertaining and a balance of these devices with the rest of the team’s package would
be the key to success in 2011.
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