Ferrari and Peugeot to collaborate on KERS?
Put a Ferrari and a Peugeot side-by-side and you'll struggle to find any similarities, but on the race track, the two share more in common than you might think. Before masterminding Ferrari's rejuvenation, former CEO Jean Todt was head of Peugeot's competition department, and brought with him some of PSA's top racing engineers. Peugeot's renewed Le Mans racing operation employs several F1 drivers, including Ferrari's own test pilot Marc Gene. Now reports are suggesting that the two outfits, both seeking top honors in their respective motorsport disciplines, may be cooperating on the joint development of their Kinetic Energy Recovery System.
KERS is nearing implementation in Formula One, and several teams are pursuing external expertise to get their systems ready. But joining with Peugeot would allow Ferrari, whose system is being developed with its technical partner and sister company Magneti-Marelli, to circumvent the tight restrictions on development and testing, restrictions which are only getting tighter each year. Peugeot, meanwhile, is preparing to implement a similar system on the Le Mans circuit in its new 908 HY prototype, which it hopes will edge out Audi at both the finish line and the green front.
[Sources: F1-Live and GrandPrix.com]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mobius_1 7:08PM (1/07/2009)
That is a partnership that could really work, and kind of follows FIA's cut costs motive for other moves which this could have completely jeopardised. And I'm not sure anyone wants a hybrid Ferrari, although Peugeot hybrids are probably more than welcome for environmentalist Europeans.
With their technical resources, this could become a real threat to Audi's dominance and McLaren's competitiveness, and Lewis' hopes of getting a McLaren F1.
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jeff 8:00PM (1/07/2009)
i thought Ferrari was going with flywheel storage rather than electrical, and isn't the Peugeot an electric hybrid?
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Noah 8:08PM (1/07/2009)
Good question. However, I thought "KERS" referred specifically to the flywheel hybrid ("kinetic"), so I'm not sure whats going on here either.
Metar 9:18AM (1/08/2009)
These systems are modular - currently, all teams will move the energy via electric motors, but storage is where it differs: Flywheel Vs. Batteries Vs. Supercapacitators. They can swap those out depending on the needs - endurance-racing might prefer flywheels, F1 might prefer supercapacitators.
Also, Noah, KERS means "Kinetic Energy Recovery System" - it recovers the *kinetic* energy of the car, but doesn't mean that the energy is stored in that form.
jeff 8:24PM (1/07/2009)
I think the kinetic in KERS just means you're recovering the kinetic energy of the moving car rather than wasting that energy in the brakes. I don't think it means storing energy in the form of kinetic energy in a rotating flywheel.
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Shawn 8:53PM (1/07/2009)
It doesn't mean using a flywheel at all, most teams are developing super capacitors.
Ferrari has laughed this away, they don't need to "hide" the testing in a Peugeot. The testing ban says nothing about buying tech from an outside company.
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jeff 10:19AM (1/08/2009)
according to a John McElroy post, Flybrid is working with two F1 teams, but he doesn't mention Ferrari, so maybe I made that part up.
@Metar, that's news to me about the electric transmission of the energy, any more info on that? What that means is that no matter what, there'll be electric motors thrown into the mix, so that's cool.
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