Madonna di Campiglio, Italy - Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali strongly criticised Wednesday the introduction of the new kinetic energy recovery system
(KERS) to Formula One for the 2009 season as a waste of money.

"It's throwing money out the window," Domenicali said at a Ferrari media meeting in Madonna di Campiglio.

Ferrari tested their car's KERS system for the first time on Monday at the Mugello circuit in Tuscany but Domenicali said that the current global financial crisis meant that it was the wrong time to introduce such a costly system.

"However, Formula One will come out stronger from the crisis," added Domenicali.

Earlier this month, the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) unanimously agreed to a set of measures designed to reduce costs for this season by up to 30 per cent, making savings somewhere in the region of a billion euros (1.35 billion dollars).

The initiatives were decided with motorsport's ruling body FIA in December and include longer lasting engines and limitations on the use of wind tunnels.

More cutbacks are scheduled for 2010 with FOTA establishing a unified policy to develop and freeze low cost transmissions for the 2010-12 seasons and reaffirming their commitment to the supply of 5- million-euro engines to independent teams from that year. (dpa)