McLaren: KERS now a bigger help

Martin Whitmarsh believes McLaren’s KERS system can become an even more potent weapon for the team now it is back towards the front of the grid.


The Woking squad and rival Ferrari are the only two teams still using the energy-storing device and both teams’ drivers have benefited from the system’s power boost function to gain places at the start of races in particular so far this season.


However having spent most of the year qualifying in the lower midfield, Whitmarsh reckons the fact the team is now a more competitive force – having won the last race in Hungary – it is in a position to exploit its KERS even more.


“When you’re qualifying as far back as we were earlier in the year KERS doesn’t really help you at the start, because you’ve got to get through the traction-limited phase, you’ve then got to be able to use full throttle, and if you’re way back where we were you don’t actually have the road to do that,” the McLaren team principal said.


“Now that we’re closer to the front, we will be able, I hope, to use KERS to good effect at all starts in the future.”




He added: “…going up the hill at Spa it will be quite handy I imagine, and a few other places too.


“So I think it’s coming into its own. As I said, if you’re nearer the front of the grid you can start to use it, and it’s clear that ourselves and Ferrari are starting to use it now."


Although Renault and BMW opted to ditch KERS earlier in the season, and six teams have not used it at all, Whitmarsh says McLaren has continued to learn more about how to maximise the weighty device’s benefits as the season has progressed.


“The drivers and the team are learning more; it’s a very driver-controlled system, very heavy driver workload, and probably we all underestimated that at the beginning of the year,” he said.


“There’s the technical challenge of achieving KERS, then there’s the challenge of incorporating it on the car while minimising the impact on the car, and then being able to exploit it effectively.


“I think we’ve come a long way in learning about it.”


He hopes its KERS will continue to be an advantage for the team in all race situations as it looks to enjoy a strong finish to the year.


“As the season has developed, and as the underlying performance of our car has improved, KERS has become a substantial element in our armoury of competitiveness,” he said in a separate McLaren YouTube video blog.


“It’s something which I hope we’re going to see as a defining and differentiating characteristic, not just in race starts but in races in general.”