First things first, apologies for the barely relevant picture. Any excuse to mention that race.
Bernie Ecclestone has dropped a line to quite possibly his favourite journalist Christian Sylt, or maybe the reverse is the case.
In this City A.M. report, Sylt writes about the F1 string-puller’s take on the fire in the Williams garage after their win in Spain.
Highlights include:
I think the fire was a lot to do with that kinetic energy thing which sparked. It should never have been introduced. It’s an expensive secret because nobody knows anything about it. The public don’t know and don’t care.
You could get rid of KERS and it wouldn’t change the racing.
If the teams reduced the size of their motorhomes or the team units they would need less trucks to take them there. Mercedes has got I think 22 trucks so if they reduced two of those you wouldn’t need to use electric motors in the pit lane. The trucks are bigger polluters than the cars. I’m happy that the teams want to preserve all of that for their sponsors and brand image but they shouldn’t talk rubbish.
Beyond saying that Williams is still investigating the fire, it’s tough to know what to add. One might also say that the KERS rumours, while immediately apparent and loud, petered out rather quickly in the slightly more analytical light of the aftermath that Sunday evening. But let’s wait and see. Williams have said that their initial reports suggested that a static spark in the fuel area caused the fire, but more simply the team said that they don’t know.
Furthermore, it doesn’t seem that this chat was really about the Williams fire.
As for the environmental issue, I’d agree that KERS does nothing to make F1 greener, probably quite the contrary. But Bernie is far too bright to think that KERS is directly about emissions, so let’s none of us talk rubbish.
Just as the teams could look at their trucks and motorhomes, Ecclestone might well look at the jet-setting calendar that sends the circus around the world (several times) in 280 days. Even one change there would have an impact that would make KERS, the trucks and motorhomes and just about everything else look like chump change.
Do you know about KERS, dear member of the public? And do you care? It’s meant to play a much bigger role as of 2014 (changes delayed by a year to date) with increased power output and usage times per lap planned as part of the new power-train regulations – is that going to happen?
