Speaking at a technical university in Valencia, HRT engineer Antonio Cuquerella slammed F1's Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) as inefficient greenwashing of F1 designed to sell road cars.
"It is a fashionable green technology that helps to sell more cars." according Spanish site, motor21.com. "It's inefficient but the large manufacturers want it to sell their cars." He added, "A lot of the manufacturers want KERS as a tool of their marketing departments to justify their investments in Formula One."
HRT, however, is not backed by a major manufacturer and is not looking to sell cars. They've also, for what it's worth, never used a KERS system. Or won a constructor's championship. Or a race.
( ESPN F1 )
santiagofdz says:
04:57 PM, 12/29/10
...or a point.
I recall that when Toyota was in F1, they also said things along these lines. That the system in their prius was way more advanced than what they had to use for F1.
greenpony says:
10:13 AM, 12/30/10
So, is the use of "a fashionable green technology that helps to sell more cars" a bad thing? Is using it to justify an investment a bad thing?
Just look at what Big Government used to justify the takeover of GM and Chrysler. And this tool thinks a relatively minor marketing ploy (a ploy used by all businesses in all industries) is somehow sacriligious?
uncanny_man says:
11:42 PM, 01/ 1/11
Filthy KERS!
csubowtie says:
12:22 PM, 01/ 3/11
I don't know a whole lot about the F-1 KERS or the rules limiting it, but I do think that F-1 should be a medium for testing and developing new technologies. So to that end, while it may be inefficient now, it could lead to faster cars in the future. Some technologies take time to mature, some end up not being worth their weight. But at this point let F-1 play.