Although he announced he might benefit from the unit on Saturday or Sunday depending on the Friday results, the Finnish driver holds a very low chance of driving a KERS-powered car this weekend. Apart from the reliability problems Ferrari have been fighting with for the past few weeks – in terms of KERS – Raikkonen's additional weight as compared to Felipe Massa will presumably neutralize all positive effects KERS might have on his car in Bahrain.
As reported by several media this weekend, Ferrari are preparing a lighter F60 for the Fin, in order to incorporate the KERS unit without weight-related downfalls. BMW Sauber announced a similar move in the case of Polish driver Robert Kubica.
Felipe Massa will, however, test the KERS unit on Friday, as Ferrari have announced they managed to resolve the reliability and safety issues related to the aforementioned unit during the past races (this was the main reason the Scuderia preferred not to use the technology in China last weekend).
As confirmed by Kubica during the Thursday press conference, the Pole will also be testing KERS through today's practice, as teammate Nick Heidfeld. The German driver has consistently used KERS since the very beginning of the season, holding a clear weight advantage over most of the drivers in the 2009 F1 roster (he is currently “fighting” Massa for the lighter driver on the F1 grid).
McLaren duo Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen will also drive KERS-powered MP4-24s this Friday, as they are expected to run the unit throughout the entire weekend. Renault, however, will decide over the permanent implementation of the unit (through the Bahrain weekend only) based on the Friday results.
Google News