Filippo Sala: All-In with OK and KZ2 for the FDA driver

Filippo Sala, born in 2011, already possesses the poise and communication skills of a seasoned athlete, which he effectively is if we consider his long journey in karting despite his young age. He shares a spot in the Ferrari Driver Academy with his peer – and on-track rival in OK – Noah Baglin, already World Champion in OKJ at Kristianstad in 2025.

It was precisely at Kristianstad that Filippo Sala (then racing with Team Forza UK) delivered a superb performance in the OK final, recovering numerous positions after starting from the back and breaking into the Top 10 while lapping at the pace of the leaders. “I can’t deny that the one in Sweden was a World Championship below expectations for me – Filippo recounts – we had always been super fast and up to the start of the event I felt I could aim for the biggest result. Then, probably a technical issue beyond both my control and my team’s, which they brilliantly resolved for the final anyway, allowed me to recover the pace that would have been needed to win if I’d had more than just the Final. A real shame, but big single-race events are like that, oh well.”

 

The “big prize” is certainly among this year’s priorities, the last year – most likely – of Filippo’s time in karting. Being in an official team is the ideal context for a driver who is part of the program of one of the most prestigious teams in the world of racing, and clearly the focus is on the classic FIA pathway, made up of F4 and what naturally follows, up to – we wish him – F1, maybe in red, maybe the next Italian Ferrari driver in a Championship where Italians have quickly caught the eye of other major Teams, but let’s take it one step at a time. This year, to start with, Sala will race the full FIA calendar in two top-profile categories: “I decided to take on KZ because when I tried it I liked it and basically because I love karting. I know it could be challenging, but I would really enjoy racing in kart every now and then even after I’ve moved on to cars.”

If we consider that, except for rare promotional exceptions, car drivers – especially those aiming for F1 or F1 drivers themselves – are rarely seen in karting, this is a great sign: “I love kart: it’s been my life for 9 years now. The paddock, even though it seems very professional from the outside, and it undoubtedly is from a technical standpoint, is very laid-back. We all know each other, there’s pressure, sure, but in the end it remains mainly a small community where we’ve grown up together with many of my rivals. I know that moving to cars will change a lot of things: the places, the people I’ll be with between sessions, the engineers I’ll work with, the mental commitment it’ll require. I imagine it’ll be a bit like going from school to work; I’ll miss the carefree nature of karting a little, and that’s why as soon as I can I’ll drop by to say hi to friends and who knows, do a few laps on track if possible.”

Coming to KZ, it seems it was love at first sight: “I tried it almost for fun here at the Ala track, near home. I really liked the kart itself: at first, what struck me were the different lines you have to take in corners, less ‘round’ and more closed compared to OK, and especially different in braking due to the front brakes. It’s precisely these that lead you to find the right sensitivity and understand the kart because you often do real Stop and Go maneuvers. Because of this, in racing the hardest thing so far has seemed to be overtaking, on one hand because drivers close the lines much more and on the other because – given the gearbox and thus the ability to blast out of the corner fast – you don’t lose much time or speed even holding closed lines, something that penalizes you much more in OK.”

 

His first race experience was in the Tm Challenge, in the Easykart Championship where it shouldn’t be forgotten that Filippo Sala was International Champion in 2020, winning that title in Mini that just a few years earlier had been won by Kimi Antonelli himself, proof that many Italian karting talents often come through the Birel Art one-make series: “In 2020 I absolutely wanted to do that race and it was fantastic to win it. I found the same passionate environment and great community in that Championship again this year, having had the chance to do my first KZ race.” On KZ starts, every driver reacts differently: “I admit I did tons of practice before the race but I have to say that in the end it all felt very natural: from what I’d heard about a single-gear driver moving to KZ I expected worse and instead overall I’m happy with how it’s going even with the starts. I have a lot to learn and still need to figure some things out to make the most of KZ like I do OK, but I repeat, I really like it and I have a whole season to grow.”

 

On Sunday, March 15, Sala raced in the Trofeo Margutti and immediately felt at ease among the category’s big names at Lonato: third in qualifying and a sixth place earned from the Final start where the changing track conditions, with the asphalt drying out, ultimately compromised the final result but still enriched his experience bag to draw from for the rest of the season in the shifter category.