Reuters

London, May 6: Force India have put on hold the new KERS system they had planned to introduce at this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix, team owner Vijay Mallya said on Tuesday.

The optional kinetic energy recovery system offers drivers a power boost at the push of a button but only a handful of Formula One teams have used it so far this season.

Mallya, whose team have yet to score a point since their debut last season, said in a preview for the first European race of the year that Force India wanted to concentrate on other areas.

"We will not be running KERS in Spain," he said. "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.

"As we've seen, many other teams are not running KERS so we do not feel we are at a disadvantage," he added.

"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 introduced a new rear diffuser and aerodynamic developments to their Mercedes-powered car at the previous race in Bahrain and plan further upgrades for Barcelona.