Has your car got KERS yet?

 Yes, I should have posted something earlier, but I've been quite busy with my exchange here in Finland so never found the time to write something. Until now!



Me being a downright petrolhead, I am of course keeping track what happens in the world of motorsport. And over the past years we have seen a move to Greener racing by changing to smaller engines, Diesel cars in several categories and green gizmos like KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System). What bothers me is that where motorsports used to be a laboratory for road cars, the green stuff is pure image building as none of the 'discoveries' has been used in the regular road car.

First of all, racing is not green, and will not be. A circus of 6000 people travelling around the world by airplane to drive around in circles (7200km in total for the race alone) is not what I call green. The technology in racing is sometimes kept dated on purpose (i.e. banning of engine development) to keep the SPORT competative. Yet this is no point as up till now racing was never meant to be green. 

In ye olden days, motor racing was part marketing for one's brand and part a high-speed laboratory for that same brand. And you will be surprised when you see the list of things that actually came from motor racing. Basic things like windscreen wipers came from there and later the more advanced Traction Control and Active Suspension were pioneered in motor racing.

Nowadays though, Formula one tells us to fall of our seat in pure amazement just because they turned the cars into a Toyota Prius with wings, yet what Toyota have done is far more impressive and useful than what is being done in F1. See KERS does not contribute to the fuel economy (if any) at all, it is used as an extra boost during races and therefore adding to the excitement, not to the environment. Though there have been talks to make cars drive fully electric during pit stops it hasn't made the slightest of differences so far, contrary to the image they want to sell to the world.

To conclude, F1 have so far jumped on the Green bandwagon, and flipped it in the first corner. I might have a high expectancy from the fans (as they follow a quite technical sport), but I think a lot of people see through this faux-green image. In combination with the near abolition of ingenuity is one bad thing, but to portrait you're being inventive after this is even worse. Please be inventive again, we know you can be.