F1 testing of the new KERS energy recovery system has chalked up another victim.
BMW Sauber has suspended testing their version of KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) after a mechanic suffered an electric shock during a test session at Jerez Tuesday morning.
Test driver Christian Klien returned to the pits after a three-lap installation run and a mechanic was tossed to the tarmac with an electric shock as he tried to push the machine back into the garage.
Luckily, the mechanic escaped with only a small injury to his left hand and a graze on his left arm but with no apparent reason for the accident the team suspended testing of KERS and will continue testing of the a 2008 version BMW Sauber Wednesday with Klien at the wheel.
BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen’s words earlier this month are ringing in my ear.
“F1 will give a baptism of fire to innovative concepts whose service life and reliability have not yet reached the level required for series production vehicles, and their development will be driven forward at full speed.”
Somehow when referring to KERS I doubts Theissen thought “baptism of fire” would result in arcing and sparking and a pit crewman’s hair standing on end as if he were riding “Old Sparky.”
This incident follows one at the house that Dietrich Mateschitz built, also this month, when a fire scare prompted evacuation of the Red Bull facility when a KERS battery system malfunctioned, produced copious amounts of smoke and the local fire brigade had to be called out.
“For next year, we are introducing batteries to the cars, which are very high voltage, high technology pieces of equipment,” team principal Christian Horner said. “Basically, in a controlled environment we had a battery that basically ran away with itself.
Yeah, looks as if it “ran” all the way to Jerez!
Technorati Tags: KERS, Red Bull Racing, BMW Sauber, F1, Jerez
Tags: BMW Sauber, F1, Jerez, KERS, Red Bull Racing
peterg wrote,
Wow, who wants to be a marshal at the scene of a crashed car?
If your not dodging a high energy flywheel that has gone postal, you will be trying to release the stored energy by finding the safe/earth switch on the chassis.
There is no way you could rely on some sort of automatic earth after a shunt, marshals will be required find manual tags & pull them.There is already a mandatory engine shut off (a red plastic loop) just down from the air box.
Link | July 24th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
IndyCar Going to Turbos? | Full Throttle wrote,
[…] Will a call be going out to Max “The Littlest Perv” Mosley asking for KERS blueprints? […]
Link | January 13th, 2009 at 11:35 pm