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McLaren Deny KERS Issues

McLaren have played down rumors that their Kinetic Energy Recovery System is what draws them back on the development of the MP4-24. Test and reserve driver Pedro de la Rosa argued that, if KERS had been the problem for the car's lack of performance, McLaren would have already resolved the problem ahead of the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Brawn GP, Williams F1, Toyota and Red Bull Racing don't use KERS on their 2009 challengers, yet they did manage to stay on top of the field throughout the first 2 event. Apart from the different rear diffuser used by some of those teams, the lack of KERS provides them with more ballast (around 30 kg) to work with in order to improve cars' balance.

However, De la Rosa insisted KERS is not the one to blame for the lack of performance, as it was proven that it could provide a great advantage in the race. Needless to remind you that Alonso powered from 9th on the grid to 3rd after the first corner of the Sepang race thanks to the aforementioned technology.

“Our problems are in other areas, not KERS. If it was just a matter of getting rid of it and going faster, we would have done that already. We are not using it for commercial reasons or anything like that, it is simply that it makes us faster. The balance of the car is almost identical with or without (KERS). It does not harm us,” said De la Rosa in an interview for Spanish newspaper Marca.

Williams' technical Sam Michael also revealed his team is pushing hard to finalize development on their KERS unit in order to boost the FW31's performances even further.

“We want it on our car as soon as possible,” said Michael, stressing out the importance of KERS in the following races. Williams are expected to debut the technology – flywheel based – in Barcelona.
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