Williams May Use KERS in 2010 Anyway

Williams sure wants to participate to the discussions regarding next year's technical rule book as an active member of the Formula One Teams Associations (FOTA), but when it comes to respecting the FOTA decisions, Frank Williams' team seems to look at things quite differently. Take the newly-developed Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) for example...

Although all 8 members of the FOTA have agreed to ban the hybrid technology for the upcoming season, Williams insisted they are not obliged to do the same. As both them and the Force India outfit have been suspended by the FOTA on an unlimited period of time, they argued the FOTA decisions are not mandatory for them too.

“We still have a team of people working on KERS, but I don't want to put a date on when we'll run it for the first time,” confirmed team's technical director Sam Michael.

His comments do nothing but to confirm a recent report issued by the GMM news agency, which states the following: “a spokesman recently told us that, as a non-FOTA member, Williams is not strictly bound by the 2010 KERS ban.”

Williams are the only team who pumped money into the technology and never got to use it during the 2009 season. When asked about it, the team's officials revealed that Williams is actually planning to manufacture KERS on a larger scale, for road-car use. As compared to the other F1 teams who have preferred to develop an electrical-based unit, Williams is the only one who worked on a mechanical flywheel-based KERS.