2011 marks le return of KERS to the wonderful world of Formula 1 racing… I’ve never been a big fan of KERS myself because it’s a fairly confusing and complicated system (pretty irrelevant too).

I witnessed the growing pains of Ferrari and McLaren in Portimão first-hand when both teams were trying hard to make KERS work during December 2008 testing session in preparation for the 2009 F1 season. Needless to say, Luca Badoer and Pedro de la Rosa spent more time in their respective garages than actually making mighty noise for the people. Some mad Finnish fans located not far from the spot where I was standing kept on mumbling, “Kimi, Kimi, Kimi!” but it didn’t prove to be a good substitute for the sweet musique of those V8s.

As a consumer, I won’t buy complicated cars equipped with road versions of KERS or other so-called “green” gimmicks like the Stop & Start system as this stuff is likely to cause massive problems later on (remember that every car part only works properly for a short period of time). I wouldn’t mind a SFES (Smart Fart Extraction System) though!

I suppose a simple “push-to-pass” boost button would’ve been enough but obviously F1’s bigwigs think otherwise. We’ll see how things develop in 2011 and wether KERS will get the chop once again. Whatever the (political) weather, I’m planning to enjoy my visit to Jerez next month and bring back home a few more classic pics.

I bet monstrous rubber gloves will be the height of fashion among F1 mechanics…

Kubica in the KERS-equipped BMW Sauber