Red Bull may consider a similar strategy to Australia whereby they dropped the KERS system after practice because they felt the possible gains wouldn’t outweigh the added weight if the unit failed.
The system has encountered issues at almost every race so far this season, on both cars. Intermittent reliability has become a feature of the Red Bull designed system which was compromised to fit the design of the RB7.
Both Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber are cautious over its use in Monaco, with both admitting it may be wise to drop the boost system as the gain is only estimated to be about 2-3 tenths around the tight circuit.
“If KERS fails, you have to constantly adjust the brake balance immediately because you could have a problem at the next braking point,” explained Vettel. “We are accustomed to pressing buttons, but it breaks your driving rhythm.”
But he was also wary of the advantage it provided: “You win lap time that you don’t want to give away voluntarily [if you don’t use it]. There are two long straights where you benefit from the extra power boost, mostly up the steep climb to turn two.
“If we notice that there are again issues, we must consider whether it makes more sense to drop the system and concentrate 100% on the driving- it is a weak point which we have to solve.”
Webber says the team will evaluate the system on Thursday during practice before a decision is made.
“We’ll be testing the system on Thursday. Every race we learn a bit more, but in Spain, it once again encountered problems.”
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