Force India puts KERS debut on hold

The Mercedes-powered team had originally planned to introduce the Kinetic Energy Recovery System for the start of the European season, but team boss Vijay Mallya admitted the plan has been scrapped.

Force India has instead decided to focus on the development of aerodynamic components, as the team believes KERS would not be an advantage.

Mallya said, however, that the team still plans to run the system later this year.

"At the beginning of the year, it was our provisional plan to introduce the system for the start of the European season, but we have decided to put the emphasis on aero development where we feel the greater gains can be found," said Mallya.

"As we've seen many other teams are not running KERS so we do not feel we are at a disadvantage. We still plan to use it later in the season, but this will be reviewed after each race in line with the other work we have going on in the background"

Force India run several new updates at the Bahrain Grand Prix last month, and Mallya admitted he was pleased with the step forward they allowed his team to take.

"I was very pleased to see the clear improvement we demonstrated in Bahrain as a result of the new diffuser and aero upgrades," he said.

"To get both cars fitted with the modified floor in such a short time was a major undertaking, particularly from a team with such a limited workforce and budget as Force India.

"This of course was only the first stage in development and for Barcelona we'll have yet more upgrades coming through based on the information we gained in Bahrain.

"We'll be running a driver-adjustable front wing flap and a further modification for the front wing. This is just part of our ongoing development cycle and there will be further upgrades at most of the forthcoming races."