Vettel questions safety of KERS

Sebastian Vettel has voiced concerns over the safety of KERS ahead of its introduction to F1 cars for the 2009 season. His concerns centre on the safety of the special batteries used to store the energy used in the device.

"My personal concern for next season is the safety aspect of the KERS system," Vettel told the official F1 site. "My question is whether it will be safe enough to race. For a team racing with KERS the expectations are clear – it has to be quicker and one hundred per cent reliable."

"But I think there's one thing people underestimate at this stage – is it safe enough?" he added.

In testing this week BMW suffered yet another problem with its KERS device which curtailed running.