Dr Automotive Design and Tools

Red Bull design guru Adrian Newey has vowed to crack the issues that led to a "stressful" Australian Grand Prix weekend, despite Sebastian Vettel's stunning start to the new Formula One season.

Vettel cruised to victory by 22 seconds in Sunday's curtain-raiser at Melbourne's Albert Park after crushing his rivals in qualifying for the ideal opening to the defence of his world title. However, in the eyes of perfectionist Newey, behind the scenes it was a different story as Red Bull grappled with an issue they are still struggling to come to terms with.

"It was quite a stressful weekend in Australia. There were a lot of rumours about our KERS system for a start," said Newey.

Vettel's glorious beginning is all the more remarkable because he did not run with the KERS power-boost system all weekend. At present, Newey is hopeful, but cannot say for definite, whether Red Bull will use KERS at the next grand prix in 11 days' time in Malaysia where it will be far more beneficial.

"The intention going into the weekend was actually to run a full KERS, but we had some reliability problems, so we had to take it off. We hope it will be in the car in Malaysia, but first and foremost we need to try and field a car that is reliable, and if we feel it is that then we will try to race it."

Asked if it was required given the way Vettel crushed his rivals, Newey added: "Well it gives you a benefit at the start where you might be outgunned. McLaren also made a huge leap forwards - by copying our exhaust system, it has been said - and I'm sure they'll be pushing, so we can't be complacent."

Newey has described the problem as "relatively trivial," although refused to expand other than to state it was one developed by themselves. Cryptically, he added: "We're not experts in that field, so we're on a steep learning curve, and we'll make a decision on the Friday evening in Malaysia."

Newey was speaking at the Segrave Trophy Awards lunch held at the Royal Automobile Club in London where he collected the honour for 2010. Commemorating the life of Sir Henry Segrave, the trophy is awarded to a British subject with the 'spirit of adventure' for the most outstanding demonstration of transportation by land, air or water.

Newey received the award for being the only Formula One designer to have designed championship-winning cars with three different teams, Williams, McLaren and Red Bull. With the list of winners reading like a who's who of British greats from Newey's hero in Donald Campbell, to Stirling Moss, Sir Jackie Stewart, Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill and Lewis Hamilton, the 52-year-old felt humbled.

"To receive such an illustrious and distinguished trophy like this, it almost sends shivers down my spine when I look at the names who have received it in the past, the history of it," said Newey. "I've tremendously enjoyed my career, and been privileged to work with some great people. I can honestly say I've just about enjoyed every single working day of it. Everything else has been a bonus."

Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner thinks his team will need to get its KERS up and running in the Malaysian Grand Prix if it wants to maintain its winning start to the season.

Reliability issues with its hybrid power system in practice for the Australian Grand Prix resulted in the team electing to disengage it for the remainder of the weekend - although its absence made little difference to the strong speed of the car.

With a short run from the start of the Albert Park grid to the first corner, pole position man Sebastian Vettel was able to hold onto his lead even without a KERS boost – and he proved dominant throughout the race to take his first win of the season.

But with there being much longer straights at the next race in Malaysia, Horner is well aware that his outfit may be put on the back foot if it cannot run KERS there.

"We plan to have it on the car for Malaysia," Horner said when asked about the future plans for the device.

"The KERS effect here [in Australia] is less, as the run to the first corner is shorter. So that is our main exposure, which is why we didn't want you guys to tell the rest of the world that we didn't have it.

"In Malaysia there is a relatively long run to the first turn, and we will be keen to get it on the car as soon as possible."

Horner said the team had taken KERS off the car because it did not want to risk reliability issues – and it had also done so in secret because it did not want the opposition to know it could be exposed at the start.

"We tested it, we ran the system earlier in the weekend and we decided that there was a potential, albeit small chance, of a reliability issue with it so we elected not to run it this weekend," he explained. "But obviously we didn't want to tell the world – although looking at the start the guys had, it looked like we didn't need it."

Horner said he was also amused by the speculation that had run around the paddock suggesting his team had a lightweight start-only KERS system.

"You guys [the media] went off on a great little tangent, but the problem is that you have probably made Adrian [Newey] think of that one now! I can blame you lot for that then."

Red Bull are thought to have a mini-Kers system they use only at the race start. This allows them to defend their position at the start without some of the disadvantages of a full KERS system.

A fully optimised KERS provides an average performance boost of 0.3 seconds a lap by harvesting energy that would have been wasted during braking, storing it in batteries and then reapplying it during acceleration.

But the system's power is limited by the regulations and the heavy batteries and other parts create packaging and weight distribution problems. Equally, as the system relies on the rear wheels to provide its charge, it can increase tyre wear in races because it unsettles the handling of the car.

That is a potentially key advantage in a year when the new Pirelli tyres have been designed to degrade more quickly than the Bridgestones F1 used in the last few years.

Because of this, some teams believe a car can be made to perform faster without Kers.
Rivals teams believe Red Bull have built a Kers system with a smaller battery which is charged before the race, discharged only once at the start and not used again. The system would still need a fairly large battery to deliver the high current needed but weight could be saved because the parts needed to charge the battery during the race would not be required.

What is not clear is whether this was Red Bull's design from the start or whether they were forced to go down this route because they could not get the full system reliable enough for a race. In theory, taking this approach means the car can be made faster over one lap while ensuring they are not easily passed by those of Kers-equipped rivals close behind. Red Bull would then rely on the inherent pace of their car to keep them clear of the threat of being passed in the race.

However, there is a major risk with Red Bull's approach. If they do find themselves under threat from a Kers-equipped car in a race, Vettel and team-mate Mark Webber would be virtually defenceless.

Team principal Christian Horner would not confirm or deny the presence of the system.
But he said: "All I will tell you is our system is not the same as others' but it's at its most beneficial at the start." Vettel said after qualifying that he had not been using his Kers during the session. Webber added: "We didn't run it today for reasons we will keep in the team."

Rivals were stunned by the pace of the Red Bulls in Australia after pre-season testing had appeared to suggest that they and Ferrari would be evenly matched. Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso, who qualified fifth, said he believed the Italian team had failed to extract the full potential of their car on Saturday.

A leading engineer from another team said he thought it "very likely" that Red Bull had such a system as his team were working on a similar idea themselves.

UPDATE: Red Bull team principal Christian Horner revealed after Sebastian Vettel's season-opening victory in Melbourne that the team did not have KERS on its RB7s from Saturday onwards. "We haven't had KERS on at all this weekend," said Horner.

"We didn't want to tell anybody, but looking at the start ... It didn't look like we needed it. We were a bit nervous about telling everybody before the race. We ran it on Friday and we weren't happy with the reliability, we felt it was a potential risk, so we took it off both cars and didn't race it at all this weekend."

Porsche AG will enter the Nürburgring 24 hour race on June 25, 2011, with a more advanced version of the Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid. The priority for this latest edition was improvement of efficiency through the targeted optimization of hybrid components, which also resulted in a 20 percent weight reduction. Version 2.0 of the 911 GT3 R Hybrid is intended to achieve the same lap times as its predecessor but with less fuel consumption.

The general layout of the hybrid was adopted from the 2010 model. A portal axle with two electric motors drives the front wheels and supplements the four-liter - depending on the balance of performance classification - approximately 470 hp, six-cylinder boxer engine at the rear. The output of both electric motors has increased from 60 to 75 kilowatts each. For bursts of multiple seconds at a time, drivers now have almost an additional 200 hp at their disposal with the 911 GT3 R Hybrid 2.0. Depending on the programming, this power is automatically activated through use of the throttle pedal. Moreover, pilots can manually call up this extra power, for instance when overtaking.

The electric flywheel accumulator, with its rotor spinning up to 40,000 rpm and storing energy mechanically as rotational energy, is now housed with the other hybrid components in a carbon fiber safety cell on the passenger's side.

At first glance, the new GT3 R Hybrid is clearly distinguishable from the 2010 model. Thanks to the optimization of the hybrid system's high voltage components, the large louvers in front of the rear fenders were no longer necessary. This reduces drag and also lowers fuel consumption. All in all, the weight of the vehicle decreased from 1,350 to 1,300 kilograms.

"We've collected a great deal of information from our races on the Nürburgring, at the ALMS race at Road Atlanta, as well as from the ILMC race on China's Zhuhai circuit. The data was invaluable for the further development of our racing laboratory," says Hartmut Kristen, head of Porsche motorsport. "The emphasis of our work was on improving efficiency. That means we want to keep the lap times consistent with 2010 but use less energy, hence less fuel. In this way, we support future developments of road-going, sporting hybrid vehicles."

The cockpit of the 911 GT3 R Hybrid has also been completely revised. Most of the displays and controls have moved to the steering wheel. Drivers can operate the rest of the functions via backlit buttons now situated on the centre console. Priority was placed on the ergonomics and the clear layout for pilots – particularly in darkness.

The new 911 GT3 R Hybrid is a perfect example of the 'Porsche Intelligent Performance' philosophy, a principle found in every Porsche - more power on less fuel, more efficiency and lower CO2 emissions – on the race track and on the road.

Mark Webber explains the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) and Drag Reductions System (adjustable rear wing) that will be used in F1 this year.

Nicolas Prost becomes the new champion of the Trophee Andros Electrique at final round of season in Lans en Vercors.

Stephane Ortelli won the 4th race of the meeting, in front of Franck Lagorce and Prost. This was enough to seal his second crown in the category.

Peugeot is planning to test a diesel-hybrid version of its 908 sportscar ahead of the Le Mans 24 Hours this year.

Although the French car maker opted for a diesel power unit for its latest challenger, it has announced that it is planning to run the hybrid version at the official pre-Le Mans 24 Hours test day at the French circuit on April 24.

"Achieving this ambitious objective will depend on how well the team's preparations for Le Mans go with the new 908, and also on how the 908 HYbrid4 performs during its maiden track test at the end of March," Peugeot said in a statement.

The system used by the 908 HYbrid4 recovers and stores the kinetic energy generated under braking and it provides a power boost of 60kW (80hp) during the seconds that follow its redelivery.

The hybrid car will be on display at the Geneva Motor Show this week.

DRAYSON RACING, the green technology race team run by former British Government Minister of Science Lord Paul Drayson, which raced to success in the international Le Mans Series in the USA, Europe and Asia last year is to race in the new zero-emission EVCUP, the first electric vehicle race series that launches this summer, it was announced today (Wednesday, February 23rd)

Drayson Racing will enter a race-bred Westfield iRACER in the Sports EV (electric vehicle) series within the EVCUP. With a peak power of 260bhp and 660Nm of maximum torque per wheel, the Westfield iRACER is sure to keep even the most accomplished race drivers focused at every straight and corner.

Lord Drayson’s experience as a science entrepreneur, Government Minister, FIA panel member on future energy technologies, MIA Honorary President and successful race driver and team owner makes him perfectly placed to work closely with EVCUP in not only demonstrating the performance of electric vehicles, but progressing the development and growth of zero emission racing.

Lord Drayson said: “Drayson Racing have paved the way in green racing over the past four years with second generation biofuels and we have been looking at electric vehicle technologies for a while, waiting for the technology to mature and for the right time to enter this exciting new field. The team at EVCUP have taken a bold step forward to create the world’s first electric racing series. As one of the world’s leading green motorsport teams, we want to be a part of it and we want to win it!”

EVCUP Race Director Grahame Butterworth says: “Lord Drayson has the foresight, experience and ability to help drive these cars forward in a realistic but also very exciting way. He will be a great competitor and also a strong voice in developing the next era of high performance electric race cars. We look forward to working closely with his team.”

The EVCUP series gets underway in August with four events in the UK before going to Spain, Portugal and the USA. MSVR will be the UK organising club for the events which will feature races for THINK city cars, Westfield iRACER sports cars and a prototype class for any electric car based on a timed laps format.

Williams technical director Sam Michael says his team is not ruling out using its flywheel KERS this year, although he conceded it was very unlikely.

The team will start the season with its battery-based KERS, after having ruled out the flywheel version because of packing reasons.

Williams has been the only F1 team known to be developing a flywheel system.

Michael admitted it was unlikely that the system is used this year, but claimed it is on the cards for next season.

"We have a battery system in the car. All about KERS is contained underneath the chassis and we did mainly for aerodynamic reasons," said Michael during the launch of Williams's livery on Thursday.

"We did consider a flywheel for this car. It was very close but unfortunately the packaging sort of us stopped us from doing that to start with.

"But we also haven't discounted introducing it in the car at some point. It'd be very unlikely during 2011, but it's definitely on the cards for 2012."

F1 must change its perception from that of ‘a gas-guzzling, money-guzzling sport’ to one that is far more society-relevant in the modern day-and-age and ‘leading the way’ in terms of environmentally-friendly technology, CEO of McLaren Racing Martin Whitmarsh has stressed.

The arrival of KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems) in 2009 – and its return to the grand prix grid this year – is one of F1’s recent concessions to modifying its traditional ways, and the fervent cost-cutting drive and anticipated switch to ‘greener’ 1.6-litre, turbocharged four-cylinder engines from 2013 are further evidence that the most glamorous sport in the world is increasingly committed to cleaning up its act. Not before time, Whitmarsh contends.

“I think F1 has to recognise that we are on the world stage, and as such we’ve got to remain relevant to society if we are going to be such a great global sport,” underlined the McLaren-Mercedes team principal and Formula One Teams’ Association chairman, going on to point out his pride at the Woking-based outfit’s recent receipt of a Carbon Trust Award – the only team in the sport to have been bestowed such an accolade – as well as FOTA’s earnest vow to reduce its carbon footprint.

“We can always get romantic about what we have, but we must also be seen to be socially-relevant, otherwise it becomes very difficult. F1 has not historically done a good job of shaping its image of being a gas-guzzling, money-guzzling sport. Perhaps in the seventies and eighties that was acceptable and a part of the allure of F1, but increasingly, efficiency has become more important. We’ve got to change our perception, and we’ve got to be doing things that are passionate with regard to resources and money.

“The Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA) has been difficult for all the teams, but it’s important that we have reached some agreements there. I think we’ve got to [paint the picture] that people who win in F1 are the most passionate organisations in terms of how we use resources and technology relevant to what you’ll see in road cars in the future. If F1 can be a development hotbed and create public interest in such technologies and we make it our quest to reduce carbon issues, I think it can only be a good thing.

“KERS technology is back this year, which creates public interest. It’s a further step in terms of hybrid technology, which all helps to make the sport relevant – and looking to the future, in 2013 we’ll have downsized engines. F1 has to be seen to be doing its bit and leading the way. We’re all excited about the technology challenge, and we should be proud as a sport that we are really grasping these issues rather than just carrying the stickers – we’re actually doing something concrete, something tangible about it all.”

Another area close to Whitmarsh’s heart – and one in which he feels F1 continues to fall short – is that of taking the sport closer to the fans, with McLaren’s recent unveiling of its new MP4-26 contender in front of hundreds of Vodafone customers in Berlin one small way of approaching that goal.

“We wanted to do something different rather than just pull a silver cloth off the car,” the Englishman explained, expressing his appreciation for the ongoing support of the team’s sponsors in such tough economic times. “To have our fans and Vodafone customers and employees involved in such an event is fun, and stimulating for all of us. We’re trying to take it more to the people, which is something in F1 that we’ve got to do more of – we need to embrace the fans and the people who love our sport.”

In a recent interview with Wired.co.uk, Jonathan Neale, managing director of McLaren mentioned Formula One Teams are considering running F1 cars as EVs in the pit lane.

"There’s a debate going on about running F1 cars as EVs in the pit lane. Some people say, “Isn’t that just a milk float in the pit lane?” But when you look at the technology required to make that happen and restart the engine at the end of the pit lane it’s exciting."

This year most Formula One cars on the grid will be equipped with a 60 Kw liquid cooled brushless direct current (BLDC) motor / generator unit. That's almost as much power as the 80 Kw motor found in the Nissan Leaf, yet an F1 car is approx 1/3rd the weight. Combined with the 400kj (111 watt hour) KERS battery storage that's more than enough power to traverse a pit lane at the usual 100 km/h speed limit.

Sounds like a great idea. It might be seen as a bit of a gimmick at first, but as the pit stops play a prominent role in the TV broadcasts, running silently in EV mode would be a very audible reminder to the hundreds of millions watching that F1 cars do in fact carry hybrid electric propulsion systems, something that can only be seen via a 'battery' TV graphic while the cars are on-track.

Nicolas Prost gets the first Electric Andros Trophy title at St-Dié des Vosges.

The Automobile Club de l’Ouest on Wednesday presented the official entry list for the 2011 24 Hours of Le Mans. The race organizer nominated 56 cars and 10 reserves. As usual, the entry list is highlighted by the prospect of a renewed battle between the factory Audi Sport and Peugeot Sport teams with their latest turbodiesels.

However, there are hopes this year that, under the latest regulations, gasoline-powered engines will be much more competitive in the front-running, 17-car LMP1 division. Such cars have been entered by Aston Martin Racing and Honda Performance Development. Toyota also is supplying works engines in LMP1, and there will be additional factory participation in other classes by BMW, Chevrolet, Lotus and Nissan, with Ferrari and Porsche again supporting their privateer teams.

In the second year of Hybrid drivetrains being encouraged at Le Mans, with full hybrids allowed to use four-wheel drive, we see the first Hybrid entries. Hope Racing has secured a firm entry for its new Oreca hybrid, but the Rangoni Motorsports team’s Zytek is on the reserve list. This year, kinetic-energy-recovery systems are allowed in both LMP1 and LMP2, but they must be activated by the accelerator pedal.

With virtually the entire Formula One field running KERS this season, how many more years will it be before we see a works team enter a hybrid at Le mans?

McLaren-Mercedes’ newly-promoted technical director Paddy Lowe has warned rivals electing not to run with KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems) in F1 2011 that they will be unable to ‘produce a competitive car’ and as such will be left languishing at the rear of the field and merely ‘making up the numbers’.

The controversial KERS technology – one that is being developed to become road-relevant in the near future, with F1 as a sort of proving-ground – first entered the top flight two years ago, but it was not a universal success, with fewer than half of the teams using it due to its excessive weight and cost, and some of those that did abandoning it before season’s end.

McLaren, indeed, was the only competitor to persevere with the ‘power boost’ system all the way to the conclusion of the campaign, with the Mercedes-developed device widely-recognised as the best on the grid – and Lowe insists the team would not be without it now, going on to warn the likes of KERS sceptics Team Lotus, Virgin Racing and Hispania Racing (HRT) that they are fighting a losing battle.

“It wasn’t a difficult decision to re-introduce KERS,” he reflected. “We know there is real performance there and some real lap time. Also, as we found out in 2009, it’s very powerful to use at the race start. Teams would admit they had lost position relative to us before the race had even begun...

“If you were going to compete this year without the KERS hybrid, we believe you would simply be making up the numbers as you would not be able to produce a competitive car. We believe the re-introduction of a hybrid system will play to our strengths. We’re very positive about what we can get out of it in terms of extra gains.

“The re-introduction of KERS has been a big project, but we’ve learned some lessons from the previous occasion. We are using a common system developed by Mercedes, so we had to find a package that would accommodate the needs of both teams – and we’re really happy with what we’ve got.

“One of the problems with an F1 car is trying to find extra volume, which is pretty scarce these days. By putting KERS back in we had to displace fuel, so we had to grow the dimensions some other how and make the tank a little bit longer in order to allow the KERS to sit at the front of the engine.”

Revealing that the KERS of 2011 is ‘a much more integrated system’ than it was back in 2009, Lowe explained that it is ‘better for weight distribution and easier to manage’ – and a unanimous accord amongst competitors last year played no small part in facilitating its re-introduction, he admits.

“In the middle of last year, the teams all agreed we would fix the weight distribution on cars to a very narrow range,” he recounted. “As the [Pirelli] tyres had not yet been developed and the specification was not clear, what we didn’t want was to have to take a gamble, because it would be a very expensive gamble for a team to get wrong. In 2009, the ballast of the car reduced with KERS, so the ability to play with weight distribution was eliminated. The key for 2011 was reaching this agreement for a fixed weight distribution range.”

One key change for F1 2011 is that the so-called ‘double-decker’ diffusers – so contentious in the early stages of 2009 – have been outlawed, causing teams to look for alternative solutions to regain the lost downforce at the rear of the car. McLaren has opted for a pullrod suspension à la defending double world champions Red Bull Racing, and Lowe hints at far more shrewd innovations beneath the MP4-26’s surface, invisible to the naked eye.

“Aerodynamics is always the big area we need to keep pushing,” the 48-year-old mused. “It’s the area that has historically delivered the most lap time, particularly in an era of frozen engine rules. The loss of the double-diffuser has taken a lot of downforce from the rear of the car, but we think we’ve come up with some good ideas about how to recover it.

“The sidepod solution is quite unique, and has given us a new envelope to try to drive performance to the rear of the car. We need to keep thinking out-of-the-box. Compared to ten or 20 years ago, it’s really quite staggering what can be delivered given the restrictions we have now – it’s a tribute to imaginative thinking.”

Williams completed a successful first test of its KERS system at Valencia today despite never having run the system fully operational on-track before.

The team did not run the hybrid system during the 2009 season and has abandoned the flywheel hybrid system to develop its own battery-based KERS for the return of the technology this year.

Pastor Maldonado completed a total of 101 laps with the system engaged and technical director Sam Michael was pleased with the reliability after losing three hours of track time on the first day of the test with a KERS problem suffered when the system was not active.

"We turned KERS on today for the first lap and did 100 laps on it," said Michael. "Within five laps we were on full power and we ran it all day.

"We just started running KERS today, although we had bits and pieces on the car before and we haven't had any problems."

Maldonado ended the day seventh fastest overall and fourth fastest 2011 car, meaning that Williams finished the test with a productive day after losing some track time on Tuesday and Wednesday.

"It's been good," said Michael of the test overall. "We basically had five hours of downtime - three hours with the KERS motor problem on day one and then an electrical fault yesterday that cost us two hours. But apart from that, the car ran.

"We got some good mileage on it, understood all of the systems, got temperatures and pressures, seeing what rubs and what doesn't, looking at the internal conditions of the mechanical parts and it's all not bad. We had a few little problems here and there, but it's all solid."

Michael is reserving judgement as to the overall potential of the new Williams FW33, but is confident that the fundamental design has good potential.

"It's too early to tell because you don't know what fuel loads people are running," said Michael. "This is a very peculiar track because the lift/drag ratio is less than 1:1, so you need to get onto some proper tracks before you see anything.

"All of the cars will change before the first race, but there is nothing conceptually on our car that is fundamentally different than any other car, except for probably Renault with its exhaust."

Peugeot will use a 3.7-litre V8 turbo-diesel engine to power its new 908 Le Mans challenger the French manufacturer confirmed at the car's launch in Paris on Thursday.

Though the company has long considered the use of hybrid technology, it has instead decided to build an engine using its tried and trusted diesel technology, according to the ACO's performance equalising regulations.

"We have also made full of our experience with the V12," said Peugeot Sport's technical director Bruno Famin. "We ultimately decided to opt for a turbocharged diesel V8, the characteristics of which are very similar to those of the V12 (which powered the old car).

"The angle of the 'vee' is 90 degrees (compared with 100 degrees in the case of the V12) for balance reasons. The cubic capacity is 3.7 litres and the new V8 HDi FAP boasts peak power of 550hp. We ran it for the first time on the dyno on January 25, 2010."

The all-new 908, so named in reference to its ultra-successful forebear - the 908 Hdi FAP - also continues the theme of closed top prototypes recently followed by Audi with its own new R18.

"We knew from previous testing work that there is little significant difference between open- and closed-cockpit cars in terms of their aerodynamic performance," said Famin. "At the same time, despite the added constraints they bring when working on them at races, closed-cockpit cars provide additional safety for the drivers. We therefore decided to stay with the same solution.

"Given the big reduction in engine power resulting from the 2011 regulations (a fall of approximately 150hp), we had to take a fresh look at the trade-off between aerodynamics, drag and downforce. The latter has been significantly reduced in order to maintain a reasonably high top speed."

But though visually the 908 clearly carries much of the DNA aerodynamically of its predecessor, Famin claims it is a completely new design from the ground up.

"The experience we have gained over the past four years helped to steer the decision-making process and our technical choices, although the only component which has been carried over at the end of the day is the windscreen wiper!" he said. "One of the principal difficulties we faced was having to design an all-new car while continuing to race another at the same time.

"We also needed to set ourselves sound objectives with a view to obtaining the best possible package with regard to engine performance, aerodynamics and weight distribution. We will only find out how successful we have been when we start racing the new car..."

Peugeot has also opted to go for rear-width sized 14.5in front tyres, just as Audi has done with its R18 - a concept pioneered by Acura's LMP1 in the American Le Mans Series in 2009.

"Today's LMP cars have a shortcoming with regard to front-end road holding performance," explained Famin. "The logical way to cure this was to increase the size of the contact patch between the tyres and the track, which entailed running bigger front wheels, within the limits specified by the regulations. This aspect of the car's development was carried out in close collaboration with our partner Michelin."

Peugeot began testing the new car, then codenamed the 90X, as early as last July, and is confident that it will prove to be as driver friendly as the car that took it to the LMS and Intercontinental titles in 2010.

"One of the very positive points we found was that the car's handling lived up to our expectations out of the box," said Famin. "With regard to its other strengths and weaknesses, we will need to wait until the first races to see how we compare with our rivals.

"That said, we continue to work without worrying about what our opponents are doing; we are simply focusing on our own objectives. Between the car's track debut in 2010 and the 2011 Le Mans 24 Hours, we will have completed 12 tests in all, at a number of different circuits."

Despite Peugeot carting a hybrid version of their 908 HDi FAP called the 'hy' around the show circuit as long ago as 2008, there's still no confirmation Peugeot will ever use KERS on board the official works cars.

Mercedes GP unveils first images of its new MGPW02.

The KERS equipped car ran for the first time during the first F1 official testin at Valencia, with Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg.

The Kinetic Energy Recovery System is making a return to Formula 1 this season and, unlike in 2009, all teams are expected to run it.

Red Bull's technical chief Adrian Newey believes it is crucial that his team gets its KERS working properly in 2011 if it's not to lose out to its rivals.

Two years ago, Red Bull developed its own KERS but decided not to race it as its main rival Brawn GP was also not using it.

But Newey reckons this year his team cannot afford to not get KERS working properly, as he believes the system will be a big advantage during race starts.

"The RB5 was actually packaged to take KERS and we did run it briefly pre-season," said Newey during the launch of the new car at Valencia. "We took the view at the start that there were other things we wanted to concentrate on in 2009 so we chose not to race with it through the season.

"Packaging is a challenge with KERS and the big challenge is to try and come up with a solution that doesn't compromise the aerodynamics too much, otherwise you drop the performance benefit that you get from putting KERS on.

"We are here to try hard to try and develop it through the pre-season so that we are confident that it does give us performance. I think one of the things that came clearly in 2009 was that the start-line performance of KERS was important.

"Fortunately the team that we were battling with, which was Brawn that year, also didn't have KERS so neither had an advantage over the other in that sense, so this year I think no doubt with McLaren and Ferrari and Mercedes having KERS and being extremely competitive, then we need to get it to work if for no other reason than simply performance off the line."

Despite last year's RB6 being the strongest car of the field, Newey is hopeful the new RB7 will benefit from the development of its predecessors to be even more competitive.

"First of all the car is third generation of a lineage starting with RB5, so it is further development of the family," he said. "We have adapted the car to suit the regulation changes, so putting KERS back on the car, going back to single diffuser, a few other details to suit the regulations.

"It is also difficult to design the car to Pirelli tyres. We obviously had a short test in Abu Dhabi post race last year but tyres have developed further since then, so it is a matter of learning as we go on through the tests."

Fernando Alonso drives Ferrari's new F1 car, the F150 for the first time at Fiorano in Italy.

The F150 was named to mark the 150th anniversary of Italian unification. The 2011 Formula 1 season begins on March the 13th and will be broadcast in HD for the first time.

Toro Rosso are one of several teams who will be using a Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) for the first time this season. Unlike some of their rivals, however, they at least have the benefit of a tried and tested system at their disposal - Ferrari’s.

As part of their Ferrari engine supply arrangement, Toro Rosso also have access to their fellow Italian team’s KERS, which was used extensively by the Scuderia during their 2009 championship campaign, before all teams agreed to drop the technology for 2010.

But with KERS set for a welcome return for this year, and with more teams expected to use it this time out, Toro Rosso are making the most of Ferrari’s expertise, not just in terms of their technical knowledge, but also in terms of the practicalities of life with KERS.

“The men from Maranello have a good knowledge of all the practical aspects of running the system,” said Toro Rosso on their official website. “In conjunction with Ferrari we are running a training programme prior to testing, so that we do the maximum possible in order to ensure the highest level of safety for the guys and to make sure we deal adequately with the electrical side of the KERS.”

It is not just Toro Rosso’s engineers that have been going through the training, but their entire race crew, as the team bid to ensure that everyone understands the procedural changes that will come with running KERS-equipped cars.

“There will be times when we can behave exactly as previously, but in other situations we will restrict access to garage areas, if for example we are charging batteries or going through other procedures that require extra care,” added the team.

Those team members directly involved with operating and maintaining the KERS will have to wear and use special equipment and Toro Rosso have been evaluating various types to ensure minimal impact on staff’s normal routines.

Toro Rosso will have the first chance to put their KERS training into practice in earnest next week, when they debut their new car, the STR6, at the first 2011 pre-season test at Valencia in Spain, starting on February 1.