Williams F1 Announce Late KERS Debut in F1

Although they are yet to officially confirm it, Williams F1 team will not be using the much-awaited Kinetic Energy Recovery System in the first part of the season. According to Swiss newspaper Blick, Williams' driver Nico Rosberg revealed that his team will not be using the new system in the first 6 races of 2009.

“For sure we will race the first six races without KERS,” Rosberg allegedly told the aforementioned source.

Rosberg's comments come only days after teammate Kazuki Nakajima revealed he is yet to use KERS in the off-season. Although some media reports stated that the Grove-based team has tested the new technology on track at the Algarve group test, Nakajima argued against it. He said that, despite having the KERS button mounted on his steering wheel, he didn't use it

“To be honest, so far, I have never run a car with KERS. We once had KERS on the car but we didn’t use it - I never pushed that button. So I haven’t got any impression regarding KERS. The development process of KERS in the team is still ongoing, but I can assure that everybody is pushing really hard to have it ready as early as possible. But for the moment, I cannot say when we will be able to run it properly,” said Nakajima in an interview for Formula 1 official site.

Out of all F1 teams, Williams-Toyota are the only ones who have decided to develop a mechanical flywheel-based KERS for 2009. The team's decision was based on lower development costs and higher safety, as it will not involve recharging batteries.

Williams will therefore become the second F1 team to announce not using KERS from as early as Melbourne, after Toyota previously confirmed they are considering not using the technology for the entire 2009 season.