KERS usage in Austraila

[donskar]

KERS is of interest to us, but what about the average fan/spectator (they aren't always the same)? It's basically invisible, right? What's the PR value?

I'd like to see something to indicate Kers in use -- possibly another light -- a blue light on top of the engine air intake?

Just a thought.

[xpensive]

I fail to see the point of this KERS thing, according to Ciro on another thread recently, Formula 1 cars cannot make use of the power they already have without wheel-spin anyway?

[myurr]

I fail to see the point of this KERS thing, according to Ciro on another thread recently, Formula 1 cars cannot make use of the power they already have without wheel-spin anyway?

Then Ciro is wrong.

At low speed the F1 cars cannot use all the power they currently have, but certainly once they start getting close to 100 mph the downforce they produce gives them enough grip to use what they've got plus KERS. Don't forget in the turbo era they had much more power than they currently have, even with KERS. It varies from car to car and circuit to circuit, but they'll find a way of using that extra power to their advantage.

[myurr]

i fail to see how KERS would improve overtaking when everyone starts to use it. They would all be using it at the same place.

The point is that they won't necessarily use it in the same place. Hamilton overtook the KERS equipped Piquet in Australia because he used the KERS system differently.

Likewise Ferrari were favoring using KERS at the start of the lap, Hamilton in the second half of the lap.

[NormanBates]

The most interesting use of KERS i saw was by Alonso .
Timo Glock was behind Alonso . He was saying on his radio that whenever he went near Alonso , he would use his boost and speed off ( Remember Tayota didn't use KERS )

I also heard that: the engineer was telling glock to overtake (you have a faster car, overtake!) and glock said he couldn't manage to do it because alonso was defending with kers every time he tried

I felt that was proof that the thing works... but then alonso said on an interview that he felt kers was quite useless: he had tried to use it to overtake the very same Glock, and couldn't do it, even using all the kers at once

so one or the other is misperceiving the effect of kers

(alonso is usually quite good at feeling what is really going on in his car, but this time I hope he's wrong)

[alelanza]

(alonso is usually quite good at feeling what is really going on in his car, but this time I hope he's wrong)

I agree, but right now he seems to be in the Flavio thought pattern of 'everything is unfair to us' and 'stop making us spend money on gimmicks'

I'd like to see something to indicate Kers in use -- possibly another light -- a blue light on top of the engine air intake?

I say mount an afterburner on those babies!!! now that'll get put on the 7 o clock news

[roost89]

Although this video: http://www.woopie.jp/video/watch/101d9f3a943258e3
is not from Aus, I have a question about the KERS usage, upon reaching the last corner on the track, Kimi gives the KERS button a push under breaking. It's 40 seconds in. Why would he have done this? I've heard that pressing the accelerator while breaking stabilises a car, so could that be what he's doing?

[Ciro Pabón]

I fail to see the point of this KERS thing, according to Ciro on another thread recently, Formula 1 cars cannot make use of the power they already have without wheel-spin anyway?

Then Ciro is wrong.

At low speed the F1 cars cannot use all the power they currently have, but certainly once they start getting close to 100 mph the downforce they produce gives them enough grip to use what they've got plus KERS.

Oh, c'mon. I use my infallibility ring when I post, duh.

[xpensive]

Actually Ciro,
At the Australian GP quali, I was paying xtra attention to the revs and speed indicated when inboard cameras were on. A typical example was Alonso, when between 150 and some 250 km/h, his rpm's where constantly between 16500 and 18000, which makes me bold to suggest that he was close to using 500 kW (680 Hp) all the way.
This is without KERS.

Now, if power is Force times Speed, Alonso's traction-force would go from 12000 N at 150 km/h to 7200 N at 250 km/h.

When I detected no wheel-spin whatsoever, how is such a traction-force possible?

[timbo]

When I detected no wheel-spin whatsoever, how is such a traction-force possible?

What's the speed that F1 car can race upside down? I remember something around 200kph. So at around that speed you'd have roughly twice the traction.
The reason F1 car can pull of that lateral 4Gs and around to 5G under braking is downforce (well in case of braking huge aerodynamic inefficiency helps too as I heard if driver puts his leg off the throttle it is immediate 1G deceleration).

[xpensive]

Indeed, if using 500 kW to maintain 300 km/h, you have 6000 N of resistance, why a 600 kg object would de-accellerate with one g if suddenly without propulsion.

[xpensive]

I probably missed out on this on some other thread, but I can't let go just yet.

What is a realistic "traction-coefficient" between an F1 tyre and the asphalt or whatever?

If you manage to get 680 Hp (500kW) to the ground at a car-speed of 90 km/h (25 m/s or 55 mph) without wheelspin, traction-force from the tyres is 2 metric tons (20 000 N or 4400 lbs.), which calls for a "traction-coefficient" of way more than two as downforce is minimal at that speed?