Webber was 'killed' without KERS

[Dare]

Seems bad luck follows Mark

.
    Mark Webber concedes his Malaysian GP chances were all but over after he lost KERS on his way to the grid.

Red Bull have struggled with the reliability of their KERS unit this season, which resulted in the team contesting the opening Australian GP without the power boost.

But, believing they had resolved their issues, the team opted to race it in Malaysia this weekend. Unfortunately for Webber, though, they were wrong.

The Aussie unit died while he was on his way to the grid on Sunday afternoon, forcing him to contest the 56-lap race at a serious disadvantage in the sweaty humidity.

Webber put in an admirable performance to finish in fourth place, only just losing out on a podium finish to Renault's Nick Heidfeld.

"It was a tough race," he told the BBC. "You get killed on the long runs without KERS and it's tough to clear people."

Webber's chances of chasing down Heidfeld for third were also hampered when he was forced to come in a bit earlier than scheduled for his final pit stop.

"I would've liked to have gone a bit longer on my fourth set of tyres so that I could have better conditions on my last set, but I was losing too much time behind Lewis (Hamilton) so had to come in earlier."

[cosworth151]

Vettel's race engineer was telling him not to use the KERS toward the end of the race, too. I doubt that they will be able to improve it much with another flyaway race next week-end.

[Jericoke]

Vettel's race engineer was telling him not to use the KERS toward the end of the race, too. I doubt that they will be able to improve it much with another flyaway race next week-end.

Most of the components are probably made in China 

[Wats-on]

Looks like the bad luck is coming back to Mark, too bad. In Australia his car broke down too.

[John S]

Maybe Mark's car is being used as a testbed for various developments or alternatives. Teams have often tried different approaches on the two cars to try to keep up with, or ahead of the rest, although it's more usually done when they are trying to catch up to another team.

I have seen reports that Mark is wearing through the tyres at a higher rate than Seb, could Mark's driving style be holding him back a bit? I've noticed that Lewis seems to have adopted a much smoother driving style this year, presumably to try and get the best from the Pirelli's.    

Whatever is happening on his car Mark is certainly not able to extract the same level of race performance as Seb at the moment, so let's hope both him and the team can turn it around soon.

  

[cosworth151]

Vettel's race engineer was telling him not to use the KERS toward the end of the race, too. I doubt that they will be able to improve it much with another flyaway race next week-end.

Most of the components are probably made in China 

That would explain the high failure rate.

[Wats-on]

Whatever is happening on his car Mark is certainly not able to extract the same level of race performance as Seb at the moment, so let's hope both him and the team can turn it around soon.

I suspect that Red Bull has built the car - just as the team - around Vettel. So, that means that Vettel could cope better with the car and everything than Webber. That could explain something.

Further, I still think that Webber is being pipped by his team, too. So, just not the perfect setup, little bit too much front wing or so, don't know... I just don't trust Horner nor Helmut Marko.

Furthermore, what surprises me, is that the KERS they use is bought from Renault, haven't they? SO, why's it not working for them and does it for Renault? Are they trying to cheat like they do with the frontwing?