BMW to ditch KERS this weekend
While Robert Kubica raced the energy re-use technology for the first time two weeks ago in Bahrain, his teammate Nick Heidfeld's sister F1.09 has been equipped with the system throughout 2009.
But team boss Mario Theissen on Tuesday explained that, for Barcelona, it was a case of opting either for keeping KERS, or installing a major aerodynamic update.
"The tuning time on Friday would be too short," he said, while BMW confirmed that the KERS absence will only be "temporary".
However, Theissen said the Hinwil built cars will also be without KERS at Monaco in just over a fortnight.
"We may come back to KERS in Turkey. From a technical point of view, the results are positive. The system has worked flawlessly up to now," the German said.
05/05/09 BMW Sauber drivers Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld will not race the team's KERS system at this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix. Heidfeld used KERS during the first four races of the season while Kubica has so far only raced with it in Bahrain.
The Pole's greater height and weight place him at a disadvantage relative to his team-mate because the energy recovery system reduces the chance to distribute weight around the car and improve set-up.
However, the decision to introduce an "extensive aerodynamics-focused development package" in Barcelona has had a knock-on effect on their usage of KERS.
"We will not have KERS in our two cars in Barcelona, because bringing in an aero update and running KERS does not work," team principal Mario Theissen is quoted by autosport.com. "We will have KERS on our cars probably in Turkey again."