Regenerative braking is simple, use the normally lost energy of braking by installing a generator in the drivetrain. Tests have shown that fuel economy of most vehicles can be improved about 15% by the use of this technology.

The resistance caused by an alternator is removed. The result is more power is focused at the wheels.

Assuming F1 uses some sort of generator to charge the batteries, regenerative braking should improve performance.

Personally, I like the idea of using the elite level of technology sports to develop technologies for everyday use. It helps car companies justify the massive expense of racing at this level.

Fuel efficiency and some “green” or alternative fuels that is something that perhaps might bring some benefit to the road car productions and justify the R&D expenses on F1 cars. The problem is that now teams are forced to use certain proportion of biofuels in their fuel and that is increasing at the time when biofuels are considered one of the main culprits in sharply increasing global food prices … Then we have the KERS development, But while cost saving is FIA’s priority, teams are encouraged to burn money on a technology that many considr out of date already.

I am not saying that KERS is wrong, but it is hard to say is right either. WHy can’t FIA give the teams the freedom to develop any technology and propulsion system they can think of … Perhaps some may come up with something far better then corn based ethanol in a fuel mix and heavy arsenic producing batteries in the car …

Well I completely agree with the ugly aero parts Let’s hope that new aero rules for 2009 will get rid of those

I’m in shock about the post, tells that people finished in the hospital or needed to call the emergency services!! Well, then I thought that surely it happened, but because those who worked on the early KERS designs weren’t careful enough, and press always likes to build a scandal from anything.

But sure, the time to create that system is short and not enough to have it for the next season, it is a risk for the teams to begin such experiments which finish with a bad result. Teams need to be fast on they development, but not that fast to begin to test unfinished products.

What for the KERS? Well, the KERS technology is explained everywhere but not understood by anybody. What the device does is simple as recover part of this kinetic energy loss during breaking, but what for? Well, this part of movement is anyway lost during braking, so there is a way to bring it back as power to the motor and it’s an important fact, the car turns more efficient. And I’m not talking about “green”, worldwide ecology and so on. The KERS provide the technology to store energy (electric basically, that’s much faster), and bring it back in a short space of time. That means that cars will accelerate with more strength, within a shorter time, saving some fuel, and giving some relax to the demands of the driver on the motor. To the teams got interested after a while, knowing its development will be part of their success. The KERS however, isn’t solved yet, as many teams are involved in its development and investing lots of money to produce it within terms of high-performance. That’s not about designing a product for the street cars, but later could be adapted to it’s use for them.

Why not to apply KERS? Nowadays, the restrictions are strong, teams aren’t free to design the cars because it has to be build within a strict bounds. Now says the FIA, “You’re free to design a gadget which gives you some extra HP”. It’s now a race to get the best one, not just to get the fastest car, but doing it more effective and efficient. This is the same when the first turbo’s appeared, and the super-charged ones began to disappear. And nobody believed the cars powered with turbo could win those stronger motors… But actually did Just depends how you use the technology to build a car which performs better (well if the turbo had longer life, we could talk about a refined technology, but the cars in that times used to have lots of problems).

Just all my apologizes to such F1 teams which can’t afford the development of this system, like the top teams can. Anyway, the expectations are about who is the most wise to safe money by using KERS (related to the fuel and motors use), and that could be proper for the teams down in the grid. Who knows?

I liked this explanation about the flywheel of ‘kinetic energy recovery system’; someone interested could take a look:
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/10/31/more-details-about-the-flywheel-kinetic-energy-recovery-system/

PS: Sequential shifting is used in any motorbike; I do not think that this is an exclusive technology. It’s much more common than you might think, but people relate it to motorsports and to high-performance street cars. Anyway, it is possible to find Alfa Romeo Selespeed technology or a simple Opel easytronic gearbox (each company has their own design, but very similar between themselves).

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