F1 now skews younger than Karting World Championship KZ

With an influx of rookies in 2025, some might be surprised to find it's the junior of karting in terms of age.

Barring any major errors, the remarkable truth is that the 2024 KZ World Karting Championship has a higher average age than the 2025 F1 grid, which has been noted for just how young it is now given the introduction of some new drivers.

For those familiar with karting, it is well-known that the top level of the sport, in terms of age profile, is generally similar to most other World Championships. However, given karting's level of physicality, this is quite notable. For those unfamiliar though, the high age might counter the notion of karting as purely 'child's sport.' Maybe F1 is now the kid’s sport.

No sport ever wants to be in a defensive position when promoting its values. Naturally, having to respond with “well, actually…” is never a desirable position. However, this only highlights how poorly the top level of karting is promoted. While KZ may not be the lineal title from the inaugural World Championship in 1964, it is the only category with Group 1 status and, therefore, in terms of regulations, it holds the ‘pinnacle’ status. This is also in perception too now as it’s where most of the professional drivers are. This is somewhat unfortunate given the direct-drive categories of the past and the champions who were crowned in those eras. Yet, the current focus seems firmly rooted in F1 for the OK classes, rather than being pure karting.

Of course, there are a few outliers in the data, particularly Valerio Giambattista at 57. Even if we adjust that to align with the oldest driver in F1 (Alonso at 43), the average age still remains higher. The FIA plans to introduce a 102% rule in 2025, which may trim one or two drivers from the grid, so next year’s data will be particularly interesting to examine.

As always, corrections are welcome. The data is as follows:

KZ 2024 World Karting Championship

Giuseppe Palomba 23
Senna van Walstijn 21
Pedro Hiltbrand 28
David Trefilov 22
Arthur Carbonnel 23
Jorge Pescador 35
Stan Pex 26
Lorenzo Travisanutto 25
Danilo Albanese 26
Paolo Ippolito 28
Marijn Kremers 26
Emilien Denner 21
Jorrit Pex 31
Yohan Soguel 28
Maximilian Paul 21
Francesco Celenta 34
Lorenzo Camplese 30
Jay Urwin 16
Luis Laurin Speck 20
Tanic Craig 20
Mathias Torreggiani 20
Francesco Leone 32
Matteo Vigano 32
Adrien Renaudin 25
Jeremy Iglesias 37
Mario Schettino 33
Valerio Giambattista 57
Riccardo Longhi 30
Tom Leuillet 25
Viktor Gustafsson 20

Average Age: 27.16666667

2025 F1 World Championship

Lando Norris 25
Oscar Piastri 23
Lewis Hamilton 39
Charles Leclerc 27
Max Verstappen 27
Liam Lawson 22
George Russell 26
Andrea Kimi Antonelli 18
Fernando Alonso 43
Lance Stroll 26
Pierre Gasly 28
Jack Doohan 21
Esteban Ocon 28
Oliver Bearman 19
Yuki Tsunoda 24
Isack Hadjar 20
Alex Albon 28
Carlos Sainz 30
Nico Hulkenberg 37
Gabriel Bortoleto 20

Average age: 26.55