McLaren looks at 2009 with 2 new F1 car designs

McLaren is likely to go into the 2009 F1 championships by rolling out two distinct car designs.  According to a news source quoting an official, the team would look at two cars with different wheelbases as 2009 gets near. The source said that it is already clear that the voluntary advent of KERS technology next year will result in significant weight gains for F1 cars. He has been quoted as saying that considerations of ride-height, wheelbase and centre of gravity are also important. According to him, the challenge to the engineers is to develop a KERS system that can be run at every circuit and give a lap time advantage, but it is not going to be easy.

It is expected that the teams would have to consider a whole range of options and thus the team is looking at lots of different things for ensuring that the best of technology is brought in. It has been pointed out that  just as any F1 team, McLaren is not going to show its hand on what it is doing, but inevitably would try  and make things happen.

Meanwhile, Force India technical boss Mike Gascoyne has noted that the fact is that teams would need to be 12 kg overweight, at which point KERS becomes irrelevant anyway and you take it off. Rubbishing suggestions that KERS can immediately give formula one the right to claim it is a green sport, he added that throwing batteries away after each race can’t be called eco-friendly.