Formula One news

Renault: Significant gains with KERS

The Renault team will be reintroducing the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) at the Italian Grand Prix this weekend as the French squad is confident that a noteworthy increase in performance can be gained by doing so. Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering, explains the team's decision.

Symonds: KERS will hand Renault over 2 tenths of a second per lap during the race

Having elected - with Ferrari, McLaren and BMW - to run KERS at the start of the season, Renault abandoned use the device after the Malaysian Grand Prix - with only the former two using the system at Spa last time - out although Symonds is confident that bringing KERS back is the right decision for the Italian Grand Prix.

"There are three aspects of KERS that need to be considered," he explained. "Lap time, the advantage it gives from the start and the ability to assist overtaking." KERS functions by collecting kinetic energy dissipated in the car's engine (whilst off the throttle), storing it in a battery and allowing drivers to use this for a power boost at the push of a button; horsepower is then able to increase by 80 for 6.6 seconds per lap.

Monza's long straights will be ideal for making best use of the electronic system

"Firstly, the gain in lap time of running KERS at Monza is likely to be around a quarter of a second and it's worth even more in qualifying, as you can do one release before you start a timed lap and another release during the timed lap," Symonds continued, referring to the fact that KERS' energy amount automatically defaults to full as a car crosses the start/finish line.

"In terms of the advantage at the start, it's a long way from the grid to the first corner at Monza and KERS will give an advantage of well over fifteen metres compared with non-KERS cars. For assisting overtaking, you have to remember that Monza is a circuit where it's very difficult to overtake but running KERS certainly won't disadvantage us in that respect. All these factors combine to make Monza a very favourable circuit for KERS."

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