Energy Recovery System

An Energy Recovery System (ERS) is a technology used in modern racing cars that captures wasted energy during driving and stores it to provide extra power when needed.

Think of ERS like a rechargeable battery system for race cars. When a driver brakes or when hot exhaust gases flow through the engine, the car normally wastes this energy as heat. Instead, ERS captures this energy and saves it for later use.

The system works through two main components. The first is called MGU-K (Motor Generator Unit-Kinetic), which acts like a generator during braking. When the driver steps on the brakes, instead of all that energy disappearing as heat, the MGU-K converts it into electrical energy. The second component, MGU-H (Motor Generator Unit-Heat), captures energy from hot exhaust gases flowing through the turbocharger.

All this recovered energy gets stored in a special battery pack called an Energy Store. When the driver needs extra power for overtaking or acceleration, they can press a button on their steering wheel to release this stored energy back to the car's powertrain.

In Formula 1, ERS can provide about 160 extra horsepower for roughly 33 seconds per lap. This might not sound like much time, but in racing where every tenth of a second matters, it's hugely significant. Drivers must strategically decide when to use this power boost for maximum advantage.

The concept isn't entirely new to motorsport. An earlier version called KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) was introduced in Formula 1 in 2009, but it only recovered energy from braking. Modern ERS is more advanced because it captures both kinetic energy from braking and heat energy from the exhaust system.

ERS represents the same basic technology found in hybrid road cars, making motorsport more relevant to everyday automotive technology while adding an exciting strategic element to racing.