Many questions are being asked following the opening of the European Championship in Valencia. The answers will become clearer over the course of the season. It’s a good opportunity to form your own opinion and to play the innocent game of predictions based on the information available for each event, live-streaming and results that can be consulted at your leisure online. So everyone can prepare their own scenario for the next competition and savour the validity of their preductions live, adding to the pleasure of following the races online.
The results of the first round of the FIA Karting European Championship – OK provide an opportunity for a quick comparison with previous races, such as the Champions of the Future Euro Series, which took place 15 days earlier on the same Valencia track, or even with the WSK Super Master Series, which provided a good start to the season.
Equipment, teams and drivers are what these events have in common. The WSK Super Master Series took place on different Italian circuits with Vega tyres in OK-Junior and LeCont in OK, while the Champions of the Future and FIA Karting races shared the same circuit and the same Maxxis tyres. The weather was perhaps the main difference between the two competitions.
At this stage, analysis can only be partial on the basis of the raw results. It is virtually impossible to know exactly what happened within the teams and under the drivers helmets. However, a number of trends have emerged, and everyone is free to make their own interpretation.
Gabriel Gomez (CRG/Iame), who took part in the first two rounds of the WSK Super Master Series in OK, was in fine form in Valencia, both in the RGMMC series and in FIA Karting. FionnMclaughlin (KR/Iame) and Ean Eyckmans (Birel ART/TM) paid dearly for their difficult Finals in the European Championship, while Joe Turney did not repeat the mistake he made in Champions of the Future and secured 2nd position in the provisional European Championship standings. The same was true of Lewis Wherrell (Exprit/TM), who reached 3rd place in FIA Karting with more success in the Final than in the Champions of the Future. In the same vein, the exceptional performance of Louis Iglesias (CRG/Iame) in 2nd place in the FIA Karting Final confirmed his intrinsic competitiveness, somewhat masked two weeks earlier by the wet conditions in the Final stages of the Champions of the Future.
In these examples, it was essentially the uncertainty of racing, often linked to the weather, which seemed to be at work. Again in OK, is this also the case for Oleksandr Bondarev (KR/Iame), runner-up in the WSK Super Master Series, less convincing in Valencia apart from his big comeback in the Champions of the Future Euro Series Final in the rain? The question may also be asked of Salim Hanna (KR/Iame), 5th in WSK and far from the top in the two Valencia events, or Dmitry Matveev (KR/Iame), who was expected to be higher up the rankings. What about the best position achieved by a Tony Kart/Vortex driver in Spain, Xavier Aramides, 9th and 13th in the Final at Valencia? On the other hand, Markas Silkunas (CRG/Iame) achieved his best result in the European Championship with a superb top 10, which contrasted with a much more subdued start to the season.
The FIA Karting rankings for OK teams confirm CRG’s strong start to the European competition, with Parolin Motorsport, KR Motorsport, Forza Racing and CL Racing Team (Birel ART) all in contention.
The situation is perhaps clearer in OK-Junior, where three drivers have stood out since the start of the season. 2023 World Champion Dries van Langendonck (Exprit/TM) seems to have found two worthy rivals in Niklas Schaufler (KR/Iame) and Christian Costoya (Parolin/TM). It is highly possible that this trio will fuel the forthcoming clashes.
In any sporting discipline, a good knowledge of the subject and detailed analysis of the results greatly enhance the interest of the competitions and the enjoyment of the spectators. Motor sports also offer the opportunity to fuel the never-ending debate about the yalent of drivers in relation to the performance of their machines, an area that karting shares so closely with Formula 1. It’s a way of fuelling passions and boosting the appeal of competitions that are now easy to watch live or recorded from all corners of the globe. Like a good TV series, the major karting championships offer many events to enjoy throughout the year.
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