No KERS for Marussia in 2012
The Marussia F1 team will not have KERS in 2012, as announced by the director of the Russian team.
The director of the Marussia team, John Booth, explained in the British press that the team, which will compete under the Russian flag for 2012, would not have KERS. The potential gains with the kinetic energy recovery system are not worth it considering the expected aerodynamic advancements for the 2012 car.
«With the progress we aim to make starting this year, our focus must first and foremost be on aerodynamics – because that’s where the gains will be made. We are looking for seconds rather than tenths, » explained Booth to Autosport.
Another reason prompted Marussia not to include KERS in its car for 2012: the cost of the system. Indeed, the team wants to adhere to the commitment to a limited budget made when it joined F1, and installing KERS in the car would result in an additional cost the team does not desire.
Our more global view of KERS is that even though we support the concept of energy recovery during braking as an ecological initiative, the current technology is incredibly expensive. This would represent a significant proportion of our operational costs, which would not allow us to remain within our initial intention of being a low-cost F1 team during a period of resource restriction, added John Booth.
Marussia will therefore probably be the only team alongside HRT not to have KERS in 2012, as the Caterham team, which entered F1 at the beginning of 2010 with these two teams, has announced that it will use this energy recovery system on its cars this season.
