How will KERS affect racing

[pipex]

The way I see this working is a KERS acceleration profile that works proportional to the throttle position potentially with a bit of a ramp up. It will be launched by the driver button but will modulate the acceleration torque in a pre programmed way.

I think that is the key, the acceleration torque. From the little i have read about TC/ESP in electric motors, is that they generate a reference torque for the controller, and that reference torque is generated via a tyre model or something like that.

Quite a bit of programming involved in that KERS controller. Drivers must be prepared to feel different corner exit response depending whether they use KERS or not. They will probably have even more of an adjustment to make to braking. I doubt that braking with KERS and without will feel the same.

One can only speculate which parts of the KERS control will be in the KERS subsystem and which part will be executed by the SECU.

This is sad, because i think we never will see how this really works
i hope that i'm wrong...

[pipex]

The way I understand it all KERS will have electric Motor/Generators. The difference between flywheel and the batterie systems will be the energy storage. Flywheel will be electro/mechanical. Batteries will be electro/chemical.

To adjust the breaking/accelerating torque of the KERS will require electronic adjustment. The AC servo Motor/Generator is controlled by the IGPTs of the inverter drive primarily. The inteligence of the drive is a common digital controller connected to the engine management and the SECU. I fail to see how you can design a binary push button for the driver without some modulation profile in the KERS controller.

So the question how smooth the decellerating and accelerating torque kicks in will be a function of that profiling. I reckon that there will be some fairly intensive head scratching between now and March to set up those profiles. They are no less complicated than the engine management profiles.

I agree WhiteBlue.
It seems that the biggest problem in all the KERS parts is the motor/generator, at least for Ferrari...
As said by your words, it doesn't seem a great technology breakthrough
The main parts for development are energy storage and motors, the other seems already "well known" stuff...
Maybe the driver will have some profiles that he can select depending on the conditions. Imagine a driver pushing the boost button in a wet track versus a dry one, the modulation of the torque should change i think.

[alexbarwell]

An aspect I can't drop - any insights to where the KERS system connections are allowed/disallowed? If integrating at the flywheel then charging/discharging will encounter transmission losses in both directions. If the system could be fitted appropriately on the diff (output shafts??) then the charge and discharge would be much more direct, minimising the losses and possbily reducing the amount of strain in the reverse (wrt normal load)direction. If there is only so much capacity permitted then it stands to reason a significant gain could be found in maximising this capacity. X horsepower recovered, or (X-transmission losses) horsepower recovered?