Formula One news

Ferrari abandons KERS for China

The Ferrari team has elected not to run the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) in this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix. Although the general feeling in the paddock - with the track containing two long straights - was that the device's power boost would prove useful, the team believes more performance can be gained without it.

Räikkönen's KERS failed on Friday in Malaysia

The system, which yields 80 brake horsepower for 6.6 seconds per lap, should show its performance in Shanghai although, having discovered problems with their KERS in Malaysia, Ferrari has chosen to play safe. "We found a problem with the KERS on Kimi's car in Sepang, and have therefore decided not to run it this weekend in Shanghai," explained team principal Stefano Domenicali. "We need to understand what happened to the system, from the point of view of safety and reliability; it has delivered a performance benefit, but if it is not running safely and reliably, we can no longer take the risk of running it."

The component, new in F1 for 2009, expired spectacularly in Malaysia's first practice session, as former champion Räikkönen discovered smoke and a toxic smell rising from his cockpit as his KERS unit melted and fire extinguisher was activated. "This weekend, we must do the best we can with what we have and await the new developments on the car, while going back to basics in every area," Domenicali continued. "To sum up, we are not happy and we must react immediately - I know the strengths of this team and I know that of all the people are working flat-out. It is important to remain cool and calm. So our hopes for Shanghai are to take home what we can; it will be difficult to win, in terms of our performance level, but we must do the best we can."

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