Williams Will Not Rule Out Flywheel KERS for 2012

Back in 2009, when all the teams that were planning to use the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) were set on using electrical-based units, Frank Williams looked the other way and urged his company to develop a mechanical flywheel-based system. Two years later, he announced that he'll go with the trend and debut an electrical system of his own in Formula 1.

During the unveiling of the Williams FW33's livery for the 2011 Formula 1 season, the squad's technical director Sam Michael once again confirmed that the car will be fitted with an electrical KERS, as the flywheel solution has been dropped due to packaging reasons.

However, talking about a potential return of the flywheel KERS in the team's F1 programme – it is currently used in sports car racing – Michael admitted this will not be ruled out for the future. If not this year, the Grove based team will definitely consider it for the 2012 campaign.

“We have a battery system in the car. All about KERS is contained underneath the chassis and we did mainly for aerodynamic reasons,” argued Michael his decision to opt for an electrical system rather than the already developed flywheel unit.

“We did consider a flywheel for this car. It was very close but unfortunately the packaging sort of us stopped us from doing that to start with. But we also haven't discounted introducing it in the car at some point. It'd be very unlikely during 2011, but it's definitely on the cards for 2012.”