The anti-launch system tested in Cremona is now law: from 2026 we will see it in all FIA races

During the days of the OK World Cup in Cremona and the following days, social media buzzed with ironic, iconoclastic, outraged, horrified comments. The general sentiment, as well as the one perceived in the paddock among insiders, was quite unanimous and overall "unfavorable."

 

Nonetheless, since government decisions are not made based on social media comments or under the tent, from 2026 we will see the plastic appendages and modified bumpers on all vehicles as per the official FIA announcement. Following this, the same will apply to all registered races such as International events, with the ASN clearly expected to act accordingly to the FIA's "Recommendation" aimed at 2027:

 

According to some, this adds further costs to karting, already an expensive discipline by itself — but this is only one side of the matter. Many doubts heard from people who have worked in karting for 40 years or more concern the actual effectiveness of the system. A similar system, adopted about twenty years ago on Rotax series vehicles, was rejected precisely by the FIA, which today promotes a method based on a similar principle but, considering its functioning in case of contact, is less efficient.

 

Ironically, in those years it was the FIA that pushed Rotax to comply with standard bumpers, only to study within about a decade a system that resembles the one it itself banned. Doubts also concern how the presence of these appendages might negatively affect drivers' racing behavior in the medium term. This hypothesis is perhaps the most "ideological" but also the most profound and sensible when considering the formative nature of our sport.

Putting nostalgia aside, this tends to make a sport that—at least for younger drivers—has the purpose of education less formative. Over the years, little and inconsistent interventions have been made regarding minimum weight, minimum age for access to more powerful categories (we have already discussed 11-year-olds in OK-NJ and possible safety scenarios), tracks, marshal training, drivers' codes of conduct, drivers' briefing attendance, and not least track conditions. The chosen path is to avoid a kart launching over another, whereas analyzing many (unfortunately) severe accident dynamics, they often are so-called "T Bone" incidents (meaning when a stationary kart on the track is hit side-on by another kart at speed, forming a graphical “T”). This is the dynamic of serious accidents such as the frightening Bondarev accident in OKJ in 2022 at Zuera, or those of Antonelli in Portimao 2020, or Lacorte and Babichkova in Adria a few years ago, to name the most "famous." Unfortunately, accidents occur every week (often in Rental karting, which use almost fully integrated protections relative to the chassis), and paradoxically those involving a vehicle rollover where the driver is ejected are not necessarily the most severe.

 

Make no mistake, this is not ranking the severity of accidents or claiming that this anti-launch system is useless for improving safety. The introduction is widely debated for numerous legitimate reasons, and the effect it will have on the very nature of the sport remains to be seen. The debate remains open…