The Hindu : Sport / Racing : Motor : Force India drops KERS plan for Spanish Grand Prix

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Thursday, May 07, 2009
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Force India drops KERS plan for Spanish Grand Prix

New Delhi: Force India has dropped its plan to introduce the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix and will go for more aerodynamic updates instead, team chairman Vijay Mallya said.

Mallya, who is in South Africa for the Indian Premier League, said the emphasis now is more on aero development, which promises greater gains for the Formula One outfit seeking its maiden F-1 points.

“We will not be running KERS in Spain,” Mallya said.

“At the beginning of the year, it was our provisional plan to introduce the system for the start of the European season, but we have decided to put the emphasis on aero development where we feel the greater gains can be found,” he explained.

The optional KERS stores energy which otherwise would have been wasted while braking, and allows a driver to push a boost button and get an additional 80bhp for seven seconds in each lap. Mallya pointed out that a number of teams are running without KERS and felt Force India too should wait and watch before taking the plunge.

“As we’ve seen many other teams are not running KERS so we do not feel we are at a disadvantage. We still plan to use it later in the season, but this will be reviewed after each race in line with the other work we have going on in the background,” Mallya said.

In Bahrain, Force India introduced a new diffuser and aero upgrades and Mallya said the outfit would ring in some more modification for the Spanish GP. — PTI

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