Sauber has not decided whether or not to run KERS in 2011.

With the car weight limit increasing next year and the weight distribution to be fixed, Force India’s chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer said this week that there is “no other option” than to use the energy recovery technology.

But Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport had said that while the bigger teams are all planning to go with KERS, the new teams are almost certainly not.

And the publication said it is not clear if middle of the grid teams like Sauber and Toro Rosso will use KERS next year.

Hinwil based Sauber is still developing the C29, but work has also begun on the team’s 2011 car.

But technical director James Key said the KERS decision has not yet been taken. “It is certainly a possibility,” he said, “but we are still weighing it up and will decide later on.”

Team boss Peter Sauber said recently that Sauber will definitely not be using the system developed and raced in 2009 by former owner BMW because it is “air-cooled with far too many disadvantages”.

If Sauber was to opt for KERS in 2011, it is believed the team would buy a Magneti Marelli system for 1 million euros through customer engine supplier Ferrari.

Last year there were Red Bull and Renault engine supplier to a few races to fight for the title of Formula 1, but even then, the team flirted to Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber in order to replace the units in the rear of the racing cars by Mercedes engines. If it has not been known – and a renewed attempt now seems to fail.

This calculates at least Helmut Marko, Red Bull motorsport consultant to “As the Mercedes engine is apparently not have, according to recent statements of the Mercedes executives, we will probably stay at Renault as an engine supplier,” says the former Formula-1 -driver with ‘Sport Bild’ – all the Red-Bull-Renault wins so far achieved with force.
Maybe the racing team to team boss Christian Horner in the coming season will go even one step further and buy more equipment elements in the French: Red Bull would go with KERS in 2011 at the start. Marko: “Either we then use the hybrid system of Renault or we buy one of their suppliers and Magneti Marelli adapt it to himself.”