The IndyCar Championship ended in late August, and during the long break before the first Round of 2026 (in March), the 25-year-old driver from Team Meyer Shank Racing keeps himself in shape by occasionally racing in Endurance GT and also doesn’t shy away from competing in karting, choosing a very high-level series like the WSK in the KZ category. Seeing him on track in the last rounds of the series reminded us of Max Verstappen’s recent words about staying fit with karting, which Max prefers replaced by the SIM.

“I was surprised by Max’s comment about Karting, because especially I see many parallels between KZ and Formula cars. We in IndyCar have a car with a lot of aerodynamic downforce, a lot of horsepower, and we are constantly searching for the grip needed to exploit all the power of the car, and in this way, it is similar to KZ, where you try to have as much grip as possible to transfer all the power to the ground. The high grip in KZ can, for me, be compared to the aerodynamic downforce of a racing car. In KZ the challenge is to put the kart exactly where you need to be to be efficient, and it’s the same with my IndyCar: placing it in the exact millimeter where it has to be requires a lot of skill, just like in KZ. The front end has a lot of grip especially when the track is rubbered in, let me explain: it’s easy to be within half a second, but then when it comes to shaving the last tenth, it’s extremely difficult, in KZ and in Formula, from the perspective of braking late, rotating quickly and early throttle out of the corner.”

Specifically regarding KZ, one of the reasons that pushes Marcus to compete here, with this level of drivers, is that it’s not easy at all: “Here are the best drivers in the world in the category, these drivers train on karts several days a week, karting is the life for many, and the level is very high. This raises my level as I measure myself on track with them. I remember the times when my teammate was Marco Ardigò, the best I have ever had, he was very skilled in everything: setup, qualifying, wet conditions, starts — I learned a lot from him. I think he was twice my age when I raced in the same team, he was 32 years old and I was 15 or 16. His approach to racing taught me a lot.”

 

Another non-negligible aspect of karting that the New Zealand driver enjoys is the availability of setup options compared to cars: “Here, in the end, if something doesn’t suit you, you can also change the chassis, you can completely overhaul the setup and configuration of the vehicle, you can change the axle, you can be really creative in the engineering part especially here in Tonykart where they have great resources for this. I truly believe that KZ is as close as you can get to the pinncle of motorsport overall.”
In closing, a brief reflection on simulators, useful but now very specific, especially for F1 drivers: “I was a Ferrari Academy driver for six years, and on average I did 100 simulator days per year as a development driver, and surely it is useful for a driver to spend a lot of time on the simulator, but we are talking about an F1 simulator, an F1 car which is a very, very special vehicle. At the time, for example, that SIM was absolutely not useful for my preparation for F2 — in fact, it was almost counterproductive because I had developed an F1 style that on F2 didn’t work as well even when I was on track. Karting instead, in my opinion, is more essential and stripped down in trying to maximize grip and be as fast as possible on track, which is basically the objective a driver has whenever they go out on track in any category.”