from FIA Karting
The FIA Karting awards ceremony took place in Nice, France, on Saturday 2nd December at the Hyatt Palais de la Méditerranée. The three World Champion karts greeted guests at the entrance to the reception room.
FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who was unable to be physically present in Nice, had recorded a video message broadcast to the 165 guests at the ceremony. Alongside CIK-FIA President Akbar Ebrahim, CIK-FIA Vice President John Ryan and Scottish driver Allan McNish, who has had a brilliant career in motor sport starting with karting, also took part in the trophy presentation.
The three 2023 FIA Karting World Champions were celebrated in front of their peers. Italy’s Paolo Ippolito in KZ, Kirill Kutskov in OK and Belgium’s Dries van Langendonck in Junior were in the spotlight.
The four European Champions, Rene Lammers (NLD) in OK, who was also named 2023 Rookie of the Year, Oleksandr Bondarev (UKR) in Junior, Danilo Albanese (ITA) in KZ and Freddie Slater (GBR) in KZ2 then received their trophies. The ceremony also rewarded the winner of the KZ2 World Cup Niels Tröger (DEU), the winner of the KZ2 Masters International Super Cup Davide Fore’ (ITA) and the top three finishers in the FIA Karting Academy Trophy: Hugo Marti (ESP), Max Walton (AUS) and Markas Silkunas (LTU).
New for 2023, the IKR Driver of the Year trophy was awarded to Great Britain’s Lewis Wherrell for his best score against more than 1,300 competitors in the FIA International Karting Ranking. The titles of FIA Karting Champions by team, introduced this year for each category, went to Prema Racing in OK, KR Motorsport in Junior and KZ, and Birel ART Racing in KZ2.
The Trophy for the Best Event of the 2023 FIA Karting Championship season was awarded to Franciacorta Karting Track for its excellent organisation of the Mondokart.com FIA Karting World Championship – OK and Junior.
During the ceremony, the guests voted for the 2023 photo contest after appreciating the quality of the six photos selected. Philippe Kalmès, of KSP Photo Agency, won the 16th FIA Karting Photo of the Year Award.