Formula One news

Williams continues KERS development

The Williams team will not be debuting its KERS unit at the British Grand Prix this weekend, but continues to develop the system for use later in the year. Although the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) has agreed to cease use of the innovation next year, the Grove-based squad is keen to see its flywheel system on the track in 2009.

Germany's Nico Rosberg, 7th in the championship, leads the charge for Williams

KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) has been met with mixed views this season however, with the device's future in doubt amongst current teams (all bar Williams and Force India), Williams' is the only unit in the field to store its energy in a flywheel as opposed to a battery. The former constructors' World Champions are concentrating deeply on the system's affects on tyres, however. "At faster tracks, such as Silverstone, the car needs the right weight distribution through the quick corners," explained Sam Michael, the team's technical director. "If, by running KERS, you hurt the tyres too much through these corners you'll lose out in the race, so the best track for KERS so far has probably been Monaco.

Sam Michael will be keeping a close eye on tyre wear in Britain

"We're still pushing as hard as we can to get our KERS onto the FW31. We're developing both the flywheel and the battery systems, but we've put more effort into the flywheel programme over the last 18 months and we're making progress on reliability every week. We want to race it as soon as possible, but we're not going to put it on the car until it's fully reliable."

This weekend will see the F1 circus travel to Silverstone for a final time before, if all goes to plan, the British Grand Prix - which has been won ten times by Williams - moves to Donington Park for 2010. "The whole of sector one at Silverstone is dominated by high-speed corners and it's a very quick track," Australian Michael described. "The FW31 is a big improvement over last year's car and now performs well in high speed corners, so we should be more competitive there than last year. We'll also be introducing some more improvements to the car, so hopefully we'll have a good race."

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