Red Bull is determined to get its KERS working reliably in time for the start of the European season in Turkey.
Mark Webber has yet to run a working KERS in a race this season and Sebastian Vettel's car has only had the power boost available to him intermittently at the last two grands prix. After finishing second at the Chinese Grand Prix to Lewis Hamilton's McLaren, the championship leader admitted it had cost him both lap time and a strategic advantage during wheel-to-wheel battles.
"We had some trouble in the race and for the majority of the race, unfortunately, we had to do without KERS, so the first stint was fine but then we lost it fairly early after that," Vettel said. "Yes, it's a big hit, obviously. Here you have the long straight, the back straight, where it has a big effect, so it surely doesn't help if you try to pull away."
Webber, who sat out of final practice in China with an electrical problem, said it was not just costly in terms of lap time.
"It's not only a performance thing but it's also incredibly disrupting in the garage for… my car was rebuilt about four times this weekend. It makes it so much harder for them in terms of making mistakes, when you open a car up and put it back together all the time, it's not easy."
Team boss Christian Horner revealed Red Bull would be bringing an upgraded system to the Turkish Grand Prix next month, which he hopes will solve the reliability problems.
"We have got another upgrade of KERS coming for Turkey," he said. "It is getting better and better as we get more understanding of the system and more mileage on it. So I am confident that the niggly issues that we have with it, we have fixes in the pipeline."
Webber reckons KERS will be crucial if Red Bull wants to stay ahead of McLaren this season.
"McLaren have a huge amount of experience with Mercedes from 2009 and they're doing a good job of it, and that's not an excuse, it means that we have to work harder, we have to work as cleverly as we can and as fast as we can," he added. "Fortunately, we now have a bit of a break, so it will be a clear focus for us in terms of durability and consistency and also understanding the system.
"We have awesome guys on the case. As I say, with the limited experience we have, that's the way it is and we're still going OK in the constructors' championship, I think, so let's regroup, get to Turkey and work hard on it."
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
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