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'Without KERS you'll have problems at the start'

All the top teams will run KERS in 2011 © Getty Images

Red Bull and Mercedes both believe KERS will be a no-brainer in 2011 to ensure drivers are competitive off the start-line at races.

In 2009 neither team ran KERS (Mercedes was then known as Brawn), due to the difficulty of fitting the technology in their tightly packed chassis and both were very successful without it. However, Ferrari and McLaren did use KERS and often troubled the Red Bull and Brawn into the first corner, despite qualifying further down the grid.

For 2010 the FIA has attempted to solve the packaging problem by upping the minimum weight limit of the car by 20kg and as a result only Lotus, Virgin and HRT will not fit it to their new cars. Red Bull technical director Adrian Newey said there was no choice but to embrace KERS, as leaving it off the car would mean the driver gets swamped off the start-line.

"I think one of the things that became apparent in 2009 was the start-line performance with KERS was important," he said. "Fortunately the team we were battling with was Brawn that year and they also didn't have KERS, so neither of us had an advantage over the other in that sense of the word. This year we'll have McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes all using KERS and all being, I'm sure, extremely competitive. If for no other reason, we need to get it to work simply for performance off the line."

He said the new RB7 had been designed with KERS in mind, even though it creates nearly as many problems as it solves.

"It is a challenge with KERS, obviously the big challenge there is to try to come up with a solution that does not compromise the aerodynamics too much, otherwise you've lost performance before you've gained the benefit of putting KERS on," Newey added. "This year we are going to try hard to try to develop it through the pre-season so we've got confidence that it does give us performance."

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn agrees that the system will be crucial for starts this season and is confident that the Mercedes system, used by McLaren in 2009, is one of the best.

"I think for us the time is right to use KERS and you saw many times in 2009 that the start performance of those cars with KERS was pretty dramatic. And to be without KERS in 2011, even if you have a strong qualifying performance, you're going to have problems at the start. For us it was definitely the right decision and we've got one of the better systems in the pit lane."

Credit: ESPN F1 (espn.com)