F1: Renault likely to use KERS in Australia

From GMM

The Renault Formula 1 team will probably begin the 2009 world championship with a functioning KERS system aboard the R29, according to the team's Spanish race driver Fernando Alonso.

The French team has been a vocal opponent of the energy re-use technology's introduction this year, and has developed its system in collaboration with Magneti-Marelli, who are believed to have struggled with its battery-based units.

Renault is even yet to fully turn on its KERS at a winter test track, but 27-year-old Alonso told Eurosport in Spanish: "Our system is truly competitive, it is working well with no problems.

"I think we will start the championship with it and without many concerns, but we have to test it first.

"I hope ours is better than the others," he is quoted as saying in Paris.

Red Bull Racing will also use Renault's KERS as part of its customer engine package in 2009, but the drinks company's motor sport advisor Helmut Marko would not confirm if the debut of the system will be made in Melbourne.

He told Austria's laola1.at: "As soon as it is reliable and offers a competitive advantage, we will use it."