KER-unch Time:

The recent economic downturn has resulted in more pressure being brought to bear on auto manufacturers (especially from within) to justify their expenditure on auto racing.

The premier sports car sanctioning bodies - the Automobile Club de l'Ouest, which oversees the Le Mans 24 Hours race and the European-based Le Mans Series, and its sister organization the American Le Mans Series, via the International Motor Sports Association - have done a praiseworthy job in promoting "greener" racing with a variety of initiatives aimed at providing a more environmentally friendly "footprint." Finally now, after much procrastination, it seems Formula 1, too, is committed to following its own path toward improving its relevance in modern society.

Back in December 2006, after years of deliberation, the Federation International de l'Automobile (FIA), the worldwide governing body of motorsport, announced that some form of Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) would be introduced from the 2009 season to improve a Formula 1 car's efficiency. (The idea is to harness some of the dissipated energy - for example, the heat produced during the normal process of braking - and use it to provide additional motive power for use on the straightaways; an additional benefit of the process would be to improve the possibility of overtaking.)

The pros and cons of KERS in F1 have been widely debated over the past 18 months, and for a while it appeared the concept would once again be put on the shelf. Some experts have argued that the permitted systems are primitive. And expensive. True enough, but at least they represent a step in the right direction, in terms of legitimizing the sport.

This week, BMW confirmed it is working "flat out" on development of a "brake energy regeneration system" which will be ready for the start of the 2009 F1 season.

"The BMW Group can transfer the knowledge gained within the BMW Sauber F1 Team directly into the development of standard production vehicles," explained Dr. Klaus Draeger, a member of the BMW AG Board of Management. "This makes Formula 1 the ideal pre-development platform for innovative drive technologies. The new Formula 1 regulations give us the opportunity to use innovative hybrid technology under extreme conditions and in so doing to garner crucial expertise for series development as well. BMW customers stand to benefit as a result. The KERS unit designed for the BMW Sauber F1.09 is a highly effective variant of brake energy regeneration technology, and is similar in the way it works to the ActiveHybrid technology developed for BMW standard production vehicles."

Added BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen: "At BMW we have always used the Formula 1 project as a technology laboratory for series production. With KERS this approach takes on a whole new dimension. Formula 1 will re-position itself and undergo a change of image, allowing the sport to take significant strides forward in terms of public acceptance."