Red Bull has admitted it will test its KERS system during Friday practice in Malaysia, just like it did in Australia, and decide if it can take the risk of using it for the rest of the weekend or not.
Christian Horner explained that Red Bull's KERS ran well in Australia: it is a lack of mileage that made the team nervous. The decision to leave it behind did not impact the team much as Sebastian Vettel cruised to a dominant win.
"It didn't hurt us too much [to run without KERS] at the last race," Horner said. "But you have to remember that it is a free extra 80 horsepower, so over a lap it's effectively free lap time of anything between 0.3-0.4s."
"It was a very close call during the Australian Grand Prix. In the end we made a collective decision not to run the system because the benefits at a type of circuit like Melbourne - other than at the start - were fairly limited. Obviously those benefits at other circuits become more apparent," he added.
The KERS has now more mileage and this might just be the factor which will make it a 'go' for its first 2011 race, according to Horner.
"I think now, armed with that mileage, and having inspected all the components, our confidence has grown - and hopefully if it runs well on Friday in Malaysia it will make its race debut on Sunday.
"Obviously the motivation and desire is to have it onto the car as quickly as possible, but we won't compromise the performance of the car or its potential reliability if we feel that the system isn't race-sturdy yet," he concluded.
Christian Horner explained that Red Bull's KERS ran well in Australia: it is a lack of mileage that made the team nervous. The decision to leave it behind did not impact the team much as Sebastian Vettel cruised to a dominant win.
"It didn't hurt us too much [to run without KERS] at the last race," Horner said. "But you have to remember that it is a free extra 80 horsepower, so over a lap it's effectively free lap time of anything between 0.3-0.4s."
"It was a very close call during the Australian Grand Prix. In the end we made a collective decision not to run the system because the benefits at a type of circuit like Melbourne - other than at the start - were fairly limited. Obviously those benefits at other circuits become more apparent," he added.
The KERS has now more mileage and this might just be the factor which will make it a 'go' for its first 2011 race, according to Horner.
"I think now, armed with that mileage, and having inspected all the components, our confidence has grown - and hopefully if it runs well on Friday in Malaysia it will make its race debut on Sunday.
"Obviously the motivation and desire is to have it onto the car as quickly as possible, but we won't compromise the performance of the car or its potential reliability if we feel that the system isn't race-sturdy yet," he concluded.