Formula One champions Ferrari will jettison the new KERS energy recovery system for Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix, team boss Stefano Domenicali said.

"We found a problem with the KERS on Kimi's (Raikkonen) car in Sepang and we have therefore decided not to run KERS this weekend," he told reporters.

"We need to understand what happened to the system from the point of view of safety and reliability ... if it is not running safely and reliably, we can no longer take the risk of running it."

Ferrari were one of only four teams who used KERS, which gives drivers an extra boost of power at the push of a button, at the season-opening race in Melbourne last month but 2007 world champion Raikkonen had a problem with it in Malaysia. BMW-Sauber's Nick Heidfeld, second in the rain-shortened Malaysian race, is so far the only driver to have reached the podium after racing with KERS on his car.

Ferrari have yet to score a point this season and now have to redesign their car after a failed attempt to have that of rivals Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams declared illegal.

REAR DIFFUSER

Brawn have won both races with Britain's Jenson Button driving a Mercedes-powered car using a controversial 'double-decker' rear diffuser.

"It will take time to catch up," said Domenicali, who expected Brawn to stay well ahead of the rest in China.

"We must change our diffuser and in order to do that, we must change the rear of the car ... if we do a good job, we should be ready by the time we return to Europe for the Spanish Grand Prix."

The Ferrari boss said the diffuser issue should have been resolved before the season started and urged the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) to remain united despite tensions running high.

Domenicali said the teams would meet after next week's Bahrain Grand Prix.