JULY 12, 2001
Karting for F1 meetings?
THE Executive Committee of the international karting federation, the CIK-FIA, is proposing that the World Karting Championship be held in conjunction with F1 races.
The CIK-FIA has been restructuring the entire sport of karting for the last couple of years, following the replacement of founder Ernst Buser by the FIA's Yvon Leon. This has included the introduction of a multi-round Would Championship to replace the old one-off event. The intention is to assure that the best drivers win the World titles before they move on up through the sport. The CIK-FIA has also just finished restructuring the various European series to make them less complicated.
While holding World Championship events at Grand Prix meetings would be good for kart racers to gain exposure, there is likely to be some opposition to the idea from other formulae as it is likely to speed up the progress of good youngsters from karts to F1 (following the example of Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen) because it will weaken the importance of the junior formulae. The plans should be finalized in October.