KERS - Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems, a poor publicity stunt regulated by F1 to show their 'care' for the environment.
This system works by capturing the kinetic energy when a car is braking and converts that into electricity. In many Green cars such as the Toyota Prius, regenerative brakes are used to charge the on-board battery, which is used to power the secondary electric motor, extending the travel range dramatically.
However in F1, they used it to store energy, which can then be released in a 'boost' something like an afterburner to accelerate the car suddenly - At least theoretically.
FIA had confirmed that all F1 cars had to be equipped with KERS by 2009's Grand Prix, with many teams already beginning their tests, however while it sounded theoretically applicable and good, we must not forget that F1 cars are designed to go as fast as possible (within FIA's Marketing Team's given limits - If you understand what we meant); the car was built to be lean, lightweight and not exactly thickly padded nor insulated.
In one incident, Red Bull's test on the KERS had resulted in a garage catching fire, and the latest incident where you can watch in this video, a pit crew of BMW's team got a 'shock' from the KERS.
Check out the video:
