McLaren to run KERS all season

The British squad and rival Ferrari have been the only two teams who have continued to use KERS, with the other outfits having decided to ditch it despite having spent millions in its development.

Whitmarsh considers KERS is giving his team a good advantage, and that's why its planning to run it until the end of 2009.

"I think first thing we don't intend to ditch KERS," said Whitmarsh. "We are very fortunate that we have a very strong KERS package.

"It is built into the car. If we didn't have KERS then the overall packaging of the car would change and there would be some pluses from that, so overall we have a good benefit.

"It is our intention to keep running KERS for the rest of the year. The alternative strategy is to redesign the whole car without KERS and that takes a lot of resource and detracts from next year's programme so we have a KERS package that works."

Whitmarsh made it clear, however, that the team will stop using it next year, as agreed by the FOTA teams, despite believing it was a good investment.

"I think McLaren and in particular Mercedes put a lot of effort into developing a KERS package, but we were willing in the interests of the sport to back away from it next year," he said.

"KERS is still in the regulations for next year but we have accepted that part of the new era for F1 has to be cooperation for the teams. You have to forgo your own short-term interests in the interests of the sport.

"We've accepted that the majority of teams in F1 do not want KERS and we are willing to sacrifice the advantage we have at the moment."