Cosworth preparing for KERS return

Cosworth is pushing ahead with revisions to ensure its engines are KERS-ready for 2011 as it ramps up efforts following its return to Formula 1 this year.

The Northampton-based company is supplying the three new teams plus Williams this season, and has exceeded all the performance targets - including power figures and fuel consumption - that it promised to make prior to its comeback.

With Cosworth keen to ensure a long-term future in F1, the company has been doing all it can to continue making improvements to its engine – and that now includes getting KERS-ready for next season.

"Our plans for 2011 are flat out," Cosworth's head of F1 operations Mark Gallagher said. "We want to make sure that we are well prepared for the return of KERS.

"Getting that done is a great deal more complicated than just letting the teams simply attach the systems. We need to reconfigure the engine, plus change the ancillaries – but that is what we are ready to do to ensure our teams can run KERS if they wish."

Williams has already confirmed that it will be running KERS next season, while Virgin Racing, HRT and Lotus Racing are all undecided yet – although costs will be the determining factor.

Although there has been speculation in recent weeks that Williams has been considering a switch to Renault, Gallagher said his company was expecting to remain with the Grove-based outfit.

"We have a three-year agreement, and there has been no evidence that that is going to change," said Gallagher.

It is understood that Cosworth has been in talks with a number of potential new teams about increasing its supply for 2011 – with the company having no problems with its capacity after originally also agreeing a deal with US F1 for this season before the team folded.

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