Tony Fernandes confirms Team Lotus’ KERS deal with Red Bull Racing – Formula 1 news
Team Lotus’ principal Tony Fernandes has confirmed that his team will be using the Kinetic Energy Recovery System unit from the Red Bull Racing team in the 2011 Formula 1 season and beyond.
Although Red Bull’s technical director Adrian Newey stated that the KERS unit is not the speciality of the Milton Keynes-based team, still Lotus will be getting their energy boost from the Red Bull team from now on.
Newey stated, “We are an aerodynamics and, sort of, chassis composite engineering group rather than a KERS group.”
Team Lotus will get KERS from the joint collaboration of Renault and Red Bull Racing and will be called Magneti Marelli.
Tony Fernandes said, “Yes, we have agreed with Red Bull on KERS.”
Already the Lotus outfit is using the hydraulics and gearbox from Red Bull.
Red Bull have themselves had many problems in the 2011 Formula 1 season with the KERS system and it was believed that it is the only loose end in Newey’s designed RB7 which dominates almost every race of the season.
Red Bull recently settled their KERS issue and now their cars are using the energy boost continuously.
Lotus on the other hand have not been able to get as much out of their car as Red Bull have although both have same engine manufacturers, Renault.
Lotus have struggled so far to make their first point scoring finish in the 2011 season. They were powered by Cosworth in the 2010 season and as expected, were unable to score a point in the 2010 season as well.
However, the team has promised to improve in Formula 1 as they have recently joined hands with some huge firms which will surely make their footings strong in the sport for the next few seasons.
For 2011, it will be interesting to see how the Red Bull-powered KERS affects the performance of the Lotus team in the remaining ten races of the season.
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