KERS too expensive for potential gains - Wirth
Nick Wirth has targeted better reliability with the HRT MVR-02 © Sutton Images
Virgin has admitted it decided not to fit KERS to its new MVR-02 as the financial costs of getting the system to work outweighed the performance gains.
"The fact is it is extremely expensive and extremely heavy and it is worth about three tenths of a second - we're after three seconds," explained technical director Nick Wirth at the car's launch in London on Monday.
Wirth said the design team's biggest focus has been reliability, with hydraulics proving its achilles heel in 2010. He confirmed that while Virgin tried a radical Renault-like forward-exiting exhaust in its computer simulators, the team ultimately opted for a more conservative solution.
"We understand why they [Renault] are doing it, but you need to be a team like Renault from the financial, human and technical resources standpoint to implement it. So we're happy with our solution."
Virgin driver Timo Glock is realistic about his team's chances in 2011, but is expecting a step forward from its 2010 performance.
"Realistically you do not make up three or four seconds over the winter, but hopefully we can be closer to the midfield teams," he said.
Credit: ESPN F1 (espn.com)
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