With the introduction of KERS next year, many teams are concerned tha their cars will be pressed over the 605 kilogram weight limit.
in an article at Autosport, many teams present a case that the additional weight of KERS will eliminate the amount of ballast they usually run to improve the balance of the car. The pragmatic decision would be to just increase the weight limit but there are a host of issues this brings with it and as pragmatism often does, it misses the adverse results that seemingly appropriate moves have.
As you can see from the article, the paddock is mixed in its respone of KERS and the additional weight it will bring. While most manufacturers feel KERS is a good step in helping develop a light weight, high performance version for their road cars, I can only assume the privateers see this as an added expense with weight to boot. Unless they purchase a KERS system form one of the manufacturers, they will no doubt feel the pain and expense of creating a system that only increases weight, reduces their option for ballast weight and officially labels F1 as ‘green’.
In any case, the additional weight does present a problem and perhaps the solution is as elusive as the intent to make F1 manufacturer AND privateer friendly. Irrespective of the outcome, I suppose the race and expense is on to develop the lightest, most efficient KERS system in the world and this surely has an opposite effect of the FIA’s desire to reduce costs in F1…yet another pragmatic decision with little thought to the consequences. As we have seen with $6/Bushel for corn, a shotage of food supplies and an increase if production and facility costs due to the Ethanol fuel option in the efforts to be green, perhaps F1’s expenses are considered irrelevant when it comes to the feel-good emotions of being ‘green’.
