Force India to race Mercedes KERS in July

(GMM) Force India will begin using a KERS system at grands prix as of mid July, team owner and boss Vijay Mallya has announced.

The Indian billionaire told the online magazine GPWeek that the Mercedes-Benz system currently used by McLaren will be fitted to the VJM002 for the ninth round of the 2009 championship at the Nurburgring.

"In Germany we will introduce KERS, because the car is KERS enabled and we have a contract with Mercedes for the KERS," Mallya said.

In Bahrain nearly two weeks ago, eight drivers – for the McLaren, Ferrari, Renault and BMW teams – were equipped with active KERS systems.

But Mallya thinks post mid-season is the best time for Force India to begin using the controversial energy re-use technology.

"By that time the KERS will have been sorted out, McLaren will use their experience and the KERS system will have been debugged if there were any bugs," he explained.