KERS will hurt Red Bull team

Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner has expressed concerns that the introduction of Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) will disadvantage Formula 1's independent teams and favor the larger manufacturer-backed outfits.

From 2009 F1 teams will be allowed to use KERS, a technology that recovers energy otherwise lost under braking and converts it into a power boost to be used for overtaking.

While Horner agrees with the principle, he is concerned that the system will benefit the car companies as they have greater resources for development and can justify the investment on the basis of its potential relevance to their production cars.

He warned that the result may be to entrench manufacturer dominance of F1 and halt Red Bull's progress just as it is showing the potential to break into the top division.

“Obviously it has no relevance to Red Bull’s business," Horner told the official Formula 1 website.

“For us, KERS is part of the regulations so it is something that we will do. It is extremely costly and as we are an independent team we don’t have the resources to develop like a manufacturer has.

“It could become a big performance differentiator next year and it would be a shame, now that we have come so close, to see it all go due to the KERS system." More at ITV-F1.com