The Perilous State of True Elite-Level Professional Karting!
Speaking to Vroom about the driver boycott at Valencia, 2x World Karting Champion Lorenzo Travisanutto questioned whether all the FIA cares about is karting's 'stepping stone' status.
Last week, I was in San Carlo, Italy, for their incredible street kart race. One of the standout moments was entirely unexpected: I witnessed one of my all-time favourite drivers take to the track in a 100cc kart. The driver was Max Orsini. You can recognise his stance in a kart within seconds, it’s iconic.
But above all he carried an aura. There’s something about drivers from the ’90s and previous eras, a certain mystique. A presence that makes you think, “This guy is something special.” It’s not cockiness, but rather a self-assuredness that speaks of someone who’s done something extraordinary.
When Orsini was at the peak of his powers, karting still held its place as an elite-level motorsport with a unique identity. In contrast, The FIA’s current elite direct drive classes (now known as OK) are now largely irrelevant to karting as a sport. Pointless, really. More a platform for Formula Scout to report on. The direct-drive classes are all but finished at the elite level. They’ve been almost entirely annexed by 'F1 aspirants.' Long gone are the Beggios, Orsinis, Giannibertis, Rossis, Helbergs etc... The sport has become a ghost of what it once was, or some might say poltergeist such is the horror that you are met within a modern paddock.
At last year’s World Championship at PFI, I caught a glimpse of 6x World Champion Mike Wilson. Though I’m sure he’s earning a solid living coaching young drivers, there was something deeply sad about seeing such a legend reduced to a sideline role in a sport he once helped define. The recent boycott of the KZ Champions of the Future event in Valencia is a stark indictment of the state modern karting finds itself in.
In the aftermath of the KF-era disaster, the professional ranks of karting shifted into the gearbox classes, with KZ now the only remaining ‘Group 1’ category. It’s the last bastion of genuine karting professionalism, but it is faltering. With only 23 entries for this weekend’s FIA European Championship, the signs are grim.
While the boycott was ostensibly about tyres, there’s clearly more at stake. In an excellent Vroom piece, reigning KZ European Champion and two-time FIA World Karting Champion Lorenzo Travisanutto made an extraordinary statement:
“The FIA, at every event where I’ve been awarded as a driver, keeps emphasizing the value of karting as a stepping stone to Formula and GT racing—and for them, evidently, that’s all karting is."
Travisanutto should be celebrated as one of the sport’s greats. Instead, when he stands atop the podium, the spotlight is turned away from his accomplishments and onto the narrative that karting is merely a stepping stone. His absence from this weekend’s European Championship will be seismic.
Make no mistake: this is a significant turning point. Vroom reports that he will not compete in the event - a striking withdrawal from someone who should be its marquee attraction. This is the sport's reigning champion stepping away from its premier stage. And what’s worse: hardly anyone is paying attention.
The sport is in a strange place. Even before considering how many of the listed entrants will actually race, entries for both KZ and KZ2 are significantly down. KZ has dropped to 23 from 27 last year. KZ2 has fallen from 91 to 68. That’s a drop from 118 to 91 overall - a stark decline, and one that echoes across other championships as well.
A change in tyres may yield a temporary boost in numbers, but the issues are more fundamental. The top class, KZ, suffers from a lack of coherent marketing and promotional focus. I honestly don’t know what the fix is. When you’re operating with 23 drivers, it starts to feel threadbare. That’s workable in Formula 1, where ten individual teams wage war for supremacy. But in KZ, without that singular competitive narrative, it’s hard to tell whether the manufacturers truly care. I’m not suggesting they don’t - but the sport lacks the structure and messaging to showcase their efforts meaningfully.
What’s needed above all is a collective effort, a shared vision. Right now, as Travisanutto points out, even in moments of celebration, the FIA continues to parrot the "stepping stone" mantra. It’s hard to fix a system when the leadership fundamentally misunderstands the value of the thing it's meant to nurture.
Events like San Carlo still show that karting, when left to be itself, has a powerful and authentic identity. But the professional tier of the sport is in a precarious state. Travisanutto doesn’t sound angry, he sounds exhausted. And that’s the most worrying place for a top athlete to be.
In thirty years, I want the Travisanuttos and Palombas of today to walk into a street race and be mobbed by fans in awe, just as we all were seeing Orsini last week. That should be the aspiration.
But is it what the FIA wants?
This is certainly a report for thought on the status of this sport and the individuals who should have recognition of their status and by all accounts 'household' names in their sport .
I didn't realise street racing is still an event either .