//:: KERS

Why do they hate F1: KERS?

What on earth is that!? What does it do? What can it do to help me? Is it really important? Or is this article a waste of time to read?

“A regenerative brake is a mechanism that reduces vehicle speed by converting some of its kinetic energy into another useful form of energy. This captured energy is then stored for future use or fed back into a power system for use by other vehicles.

For example, electrical regenerative brakes in electric railway vehicles feed the generated electricity back into the supply system. In battery electric and hybrid electric vehicles, the energy is stored in a battery or bank of capacitors for later use. Other forms of energy storage which may be used include compressed air and flywheels.

Regenerative braking should not be confused with dynamic braking, which dissipates the electrical energy as heat.”

Ok stop right there! It's gonna get really boring if I continue to paste tall the words. Explanations of scientist is too much for a normal ordinary guy to understand. Let me try to explain it as simple as I can....

KERS stands for Kenetic Energy Recovery System. Ok, so what it does basiclly is it gathers energy out of the brakes of a car. So when the driver hits the brakes, the heat generated from the brake disks are then gathered and then somehow convert it into a useable energy. After it has been converted to a useable energy it will be stored in a holding cell where it waits to be deployed or used as a form of fuel to power a car. Ain't that great? So from time to time your car runs on fuel then sometimes it runs on the recovered energy... Simple isn't it? Nope! Your wrong. It's simple to read it just like that and what it does. But to be honest with you KERS is not an easy thing to deal with. Auto manufacturers have been trying to develop this said system and has failed to make it completely stig and work.

So now the big boys are steppin in to help develop this system. I'm talking about Formula 1. For years they have proved that when they do research on a technology for cars they can really make it work. Ferrari has developed the electronics such as the traction control . Mclaren was the first team to capitalize on using carbon fiber in the 80's. So really F1 has helped us a lot in keeping our cars safe. Now they are gonna try to help us again in terms of efficiency. Next year, for the 2009 season the FIA (Governing bodyu of Formula1) has made it mandatory for the teams to use this system.

Guess what? Even F1 giant Scuderia Ferrari has admitted it is a very hard system to develop. Toro Rosso burned their factory because, and BMW had an incident during testing in barcelona. When they tested the KERS system in one of their F1 cars it was working well. When it came back to the pits a mechanic touched the carbon body of the car and got electrified.

So what is the future of KERS? Given the time that F1 engineers will be able to develop and perfect the system. It will soon be available to our road cars as is the case for most of the system that has been studied and developed in F1 and it will help us save more fuel cause this system can help produce an energy that can be used as a fuel to power our cars.

So why do you hate F1?