No more hollow victories with the FIA International Karting Ranking?

Defined in its unveiling last October as a "computerised ranking system," it will be a digital ranking that aggregates results from competitions held on different continents and deemed eligible for scoring. The principle, since it is a sport, is very sound. The system aims to 'unify' the entire karting racing community worldwide as well as simplify the activities and results system.  It will take into account all levels of competition from the FIA World Championships, one-make Trophies, and national events and, as has been emphasized, shall also serve as a safety tool to establish a driver's level of experience and thus assess his or her eligibility to take part in certain competitions. “Based on the number of points," the statement reads, "the FIA will be able to ascertain whether a driver has a sufficient level of experience to advance to the next categories.”

The Ranking system, as already mentioned in Vroom last year, is reminiscent of the system used by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and makes it possible to "filter", according to an objective parameter, the real value of a driver, meeting the need to have to skim at the end of the year the too many "World Champions" who have emerged from races that are all in all not of the highest level. Of course, there is a downside as always: while it is clear that drivers who do not win because they do not deserve to, at any level, will always be at the bottom of this ranking, it is on the other hand true that a top position in this Ranking requires participation in a large number of competitions - with corresponding budgets - and it will not be easy, even for those who are objectively very good to get to the top. More than anything else it may be costly in economic terms, let's say. It has to be said that the system and its logarithm seem to counteract this effect actually because there is a proportion between the events one participates in and the result achieved, so we shall wait and see. As a very well-known karting Team Manager, across whom several current F1 drivers have passed, told us a few weeks ago, “if you are in the top 5 at the World, European and on average in the top 5 in all series races such as WSK and COTF, it means you are talented, and that shows for sure,” so it is true; in the end, the driver’s true value emerges regardless, when you’re good.

The point is that few kart drivers in the world have the opportunity to compete at such a high level for practically a whole season made up of 11 months of racing, that there is really a lot of driver congestion in the Mini, OKJ and OK classes, and that many drivers from these categories temporarily "migrate" to European-based or World-based one-make trophy races such as Rotax and X30 Series to achieve, in parallel, results that give prestige to their path (see Giltaire at the Iame finals in Le Mans, and Bradshaw at the Rotax finals in Portimao, to give an example). Even when the ranking confirms the driver's belonging to this 'karting excellence, or top status', it will still be a project and finances behind it that will guarantee this or that driver a leap forward to car racing, that's for sure, but the idea seems to be good anyway because it is centered, focused, on karting, and set to establish an objective criterion for evaluating the quality of drivers within our sport. We don't know about you, but all things considered, we like this idea for the moment. Stay tuned…