Williams Agrees with KERS Ban for 2010

Williams F1 Team has decided to follow the gentleman's agreement made by the members of the Formula One Teams Association and agree with the ban of the Kinetic Energy Recovery System for the 2010 season. Although the Grove based team has been a strong advocate for the continuance of KERS use in F1, they admitted they will respect the will of the FOTA, in which they have recently been readmitted.

Williams were the only team who decided to develop a mechanical-based flywheel KERS for their Formula One operations, yet they never got to use it in 2009. Having invested a whole lot of money into that technology – money that, unlike the championship's big guns, they had some problems getting – the British outfit is now forced to give it up after the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

As confirmed by the team's head of engineering Patrick Head, Williams had remained one of the few teams wanting to run KERS next year. During the last meeting of the FOTA's technical working group, they were the only ones who pushed for a continuance of the technology into the 2010 season, yet they never got any support from the existing outfits.

“We were conscious that one of the conditions was that KERS is not permitted in 2010,” said Head, regarding the conditions by which team Williams were readmitted into the FOTA structures a couple of months ago. “We expressed that we think it is the wrong decision, but accept the rules of the club,” added Head, according to the motorsport-total.com website.

Earlier this season, having actually won a race while powered by a KERS unit, McLaren Mercedes also pushed for a change in strategy from the FOTA. However, just like it happened with Williams, the Woking based organization had to obey the majority within the teams' alliance. What's strange about this whole thing is that the idea of banning KERS for the upcoming season came from a no-longer-member of the FOTA, Flavio Briatore.