People

A former World and European Champion, Alessandro Manetti now runs Manetti Motorsport. He talks to the FIA about the challenges of running a private team and the big problems facing karting in Italy at the moment.

Sandro Lorandi created the Babyrace team to support his sons Alessio and Leonardo in their debut in kart racing. Today, his passion continues with the Babyrace Driver Academy.

Karl Janda is an engine enthusiast who has held the position of CIK-FIA Technical Delegate since 2017. He gives an international karting update from Germany.

CPB Sport is a private French team that competes against the factories. Founder Paul Bizalion talks about the challenges of the team being inactive since February, and the road to recovery.

The famous kart circuit at Lonato is close to the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy. Luca Corberi discusses the challenges of the business that runs competition and rental karts at the venue.

A regular visitor to Australia, and managed by Michael Patrizi, Dutchman Marijn Kremers won the 2019 KZ World Championship with Birel ART. He then won Jacques Villeneuve’s Feed Racing F4 scholarship – but with COVID-19, he’s been doing iRacing instead of the real thing, and is tempted to defend his KZ World Championship.

2019 European Junior Champion Marcus Amand has enjoyed parts of lockdown, and reckons people drive too aggressively in sim racing. The 14-year-old Finn is looking forward to racing the Euro and Worlds in OK later this year.

A former top-level driver, Joakim Ward has diversified his activities and manages the import and distribution of several brands in Sweden and neighbouring countries, has developed his own range of rental karts, and runs Ward Racing, one of the big private teams that can take on the factories. FIA Karting spoke with him about karting in Sweden and COVID-19.

A Belgian living in Italy for the past 15 years, Cash van Belle has worked with many great drivers in the sport and is currently the Team Manger at IPK which manufacture the Praga and Formula K brands. He spoke with the FIA about karting and life in Italy at the moment.