The 2009 Formula One regulations will allow teams to develop Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems for the first time, and whilst the new technology is exciting for the sport many technical boffins have been critical of its implementation. Some teams will not even be using the new system next year such is their disdain for it. In particular, the safety of KERS has been put under the spotlight this week following two very serious accidents that affected Red Bull and BMW.

KERS will debut next year as part of the FIA’s plan to make Formula One a greener sport, and it is the first type of hybrid technology to be introduced into Grand Prix racing. Essentially the new system will store energy generated by the car under braking and this will be used to give the driver a short boost of extra power.

The technical regulations have been written so that drivers will have access to an extra 80 horsepower for around seven seconds per lap.

The FIA are looking to increase that level of power on a sliding scale over the next five years.

Teams will be able to develop either a mechanical or electrical version of the system, although the latter will be the most popular. The electrical version transforms the braking energy into electricity and stores it in high voltage batteries.

The mechanical version is far more complicated, and uses the drivetrain to store energy. It works a little bit like a wind-up toy. The braking energy starts a spinning flywheel, and the gearbox will engage with this once the extra power is required.

Max Mosley has praised the new regulations by saying “This hybrid device is set to revolutionise F1. It will make the sport at once more environmentally friendly, road relevant, and at the cutting edge of future automotive technology.”

Sadly, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Mosley’s comments aren’t entirely accurate.

Toyota’s engine boss, Luca Marmorini, claims the KERS technology that will be used in F1 is primitive and “extremely simplified compared to the system we have on the Toyota Prius road car, or even on the Toyota Supra HV-R that won the 24 Hours of Tokachi. The potential of hybrid engines is immense, but the solution chosen by the FIA restricts itself to recover energy from the rear wheels. The parameters involved should be more. Let’s say that, if the Supra that races at Tokachi recovers 70% of the dissipated energy, the system chosen for F1 restricts itself to 20%.”

His belief that Formula One’s KERS technology is already outdated can be supported by McLaren who tried to introducing a similar system as far back as 1999. Imagine what McLaren would be racing with now if they had been given nine years of unrestricted development!

Toyota’s F1 president, John Howett, has added to the criticism by noting the system being implemented by the FIA is not as road relevant as stated by Mosley. He said “the road car applications are completely different from a race car. Whereas the motor, the control unit, the battery, and the basic concept is similar, the actual sophistication and needs of a road car are completely different from what we are having to develop in Formula One.”

With that in mind, you can appreciate why some Grand Prix manufacturers are unhappy to be developing old technology that is not relevant to the mass production of their road cars.

However, the technology behind KERS is not as important as the overall message it sends to the world.

Kinetic Energy Recovery is a development that will make Formula One greener and that is far more important than it seems. Petroleum as we know it will not be around for much longer, and rising oil prices have already resulted in drastic changes to the entire automotive industry. Grand Prix racing has to react to the changing world or face extinction, and although there may be better solutions than KERS available, it is a step in the right direction.

There are other measures the FIA will eventually take such as alternative fuels and more efficient engines, but KERS is where all that begins. Not many motorsports can claim to use hybrid technology and that is something that will have a positive effect on the environmental movement.

The new regulations might be good for the development of environmentally friendly cars, but they could be exposing Formula One teams to a new danger. There have been some serious concerns raised about the safety of KERS in Grand Prix machinery.

The Red Bull Team had a scare in their factory earlier this month when one of their new KERS units failed during testing. Christian Horner described the problem as “a battery that basically ran away with itself.” The malfunction created smoke and fumes that forced an evacuation of the factory, and that made the incident known to the press.

Red Bull isn’t the only team to have experienced safety issues with KERS. This week BMW encountered a glitch with their system that electrocuted a mechanic.

Christian Klien was running BMW’s test car fitted with batteries at Jerez on Tuesday and pulled into the pits after completing his first three laps. The car had stopped and was ready to be pushed into the garage, and when a mechanic went to touch it he suffered an electric shock. The unsuspecting victim was helped to his feet and given the all clear by medical staff at the circuit, but when he started feeling unwell he was sent to hospital as a precaution.

Any number of technical gremlins could have triggered the BMW problem and those sorts of things are always going to happen when new technology is introduced. There is little doubt that BMW will identify and correct the issue very shortly if they haven’t already.

However it does highlight the danger of running high voltage systems in racing cars. Electricity is hazardous, and if the car will be storing large amounts of current there will have to be an effective way to ‘earth’ the chassis so the energy can be appropriately dissipated. If it could happen to a mechanic in the pitlane it could also happen to a marshal on the circuit.

It might be a problem that gets even worse in the wet.

We certainly don’t want a Formula One car turning into the DeLorean from Back To The Future.

Along with the electrical dangers, there is another safety issue created by the chemicals in the batteries. Should these become separated from the car in the event of an accident, or should the battery explode, we could have a very serious accident.

Perhaps it would have been wise of the FIA to make the mechanical version of KERS mandatory.

Regardless of the safety concerns, some teams aren’t going to be using KERS next year anyway simply because it doesn’t yet produce any definite performance advantage.

The additional horsepower provided by KERS is negated by the extra weight. Each unit tops the scales at around 35kg so it needs to be a very efficient system just to be worthwhile.

Honda’s Ross Brawn has also noted that it creates other disadvantages, such as unstable braking at the rear end.

Therefore, given the large costs of investing in the new technology, the huge amount of development required to make it safe, plus the fact it might not produce much of an advantage, some teams simply won’t use it.

That does not send out a great message about hybrid technology, or Formula One’s environmental credentials.

One day in the future Grand Prix cars will probably use small capacity turbo powered diesel engines, or something that will make them sound like an electric scooter. Whilst that will spell the end of F1 cars as we love them now, it is important for the sport to evolve to secure its future and we should be thankful that KERS is a step in the right direction.

What a shame it hadn’t been implemented nine years ago when McLaren first thought of it, and we wouldn’t be worrying about teething issues today.