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Williams Not Sure on Using KERS in 2009

Williams F1 Team are likely to use their innovative Kinetic Energy Recovery System depending on the race, as announced by engineering boss Patrick Head. Although they were expected to debut the unit in Turkey, Head revealed that the problems in terms of car's maneuverability KERS might cause should lead to the team not using it on a regular basis.

Williams' flywheel-based KERS is reportedly weighing around 35 kg, and implementing it into the FW31 this year might have a serious effect on car's handling. The extra kg of the unit will give the Williams mechanics less ballast to work with, and therefore the car will behave differently in corners.

The fundamental problem is, and this was raised early on, that even though our system has got a lot of capacity, it weighs 35kg. We can't get the optimum weight distribution if we're running the system,” said Head.

He also admitted that certain circuits in this year's F1 calendar might suit the use of KERS. In that case, the Grove based team is likely to implement it into the 2009 challenger, as the effect in terms of weight distribution will not be very harming.

We're keeping working on our KERS. I'm not saying we won't run it this year but it will be difficult to run it on the car and have the car set in its optimum performance window. But if you go to a slower speed track, your optimum weight distribution moves rearwards anyway,” added the Williams head of engineering.

The FIA have already announced that the weight limit for the 2010 machineries has been increased to 620 kg (an additional 15 kg). According to Head, that rule will boost the true potential of the KERS unit, as using it won't come at the expense of poor weight distribution.
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