Heidfeld: Quite confident

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Nick Heidfeld has played down safety fears about the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) due to be introduced into Formula One next season.

Significant safety concerns were raised this week during testing in Jerez when a BMW Sauber mechanic suffered an electric shock when he came into contact with a car fitted with device.

He suffered grazing to his arm and spent a night in hospital after complaining of dizziness.

Red Bull have also suffered teething troubles developing their own system - the team's factory having to be evacuated recently after a battery test went wrong.

Both Toyota F1 president John Howett and Honda team principal Ross Brawn have admitted that getting the new system on to the grid in 2009 could prove to be a struggle for teams.

However, BMW Sauber driver Heidfeld is confident that, although it will take time to get used to the new system, they will be ready in time for the planned introduction.

"Of course KERS is very new," the German told autosport.com. "I think we are one of the first to use it on track.

"Of course everyone knows what happened and everybody tried everything in advance to be safe, but when you introduce new technologies these things can happen.

"I am quite confident for the future that it can be made safe. As we know from road cars, it is possible to be safe and I think we will achieve it."

The KERS system is designed to harness heat energy dissipated from a car's brakes, storing it in a battery in order to provide additional power.