The most important week of the year for karting drivers has arrived, the long-awaited world championship is coming for OK and OKJ categories. The event will be held on the British circuit of PFI, a unique track of its kind, as we will hear from Lorenzo Travisanutto, the newly crowned European champion in the KZ category and multiple times world champion, who also analyzed for us the track that will host the OK and OKJ World Championships.
PFI uniqueness and unknown weather conditions
The British track is amongst the “old style” circuits, with loads of hairpins, many important breaking points and a reduced width, which makes the overtaking action more complicated, especially in the third sector.
“Overtakes are made in the first and second sectors, where the track is a little bit wider, while in the third sector overtaking is really difficult.”
Talking about PFI, tyres degradation is not a problem and, as in the case of the tracks that hosted the stages of the European Championship, also for this circuit it’s expected to break the track record, given the excellent performance of the Maxxis tyres, introduced this year in the OK and OKJ classes.
As for the driving style, drivers can make a difference especially in the third sector: the second sector is more about hairpins, with U-shaped braking points that greatly influence the gearing and the chassis, while in the first and third sectors the driver can make a huge difference keeping the line and pushing to the limit without making mistakes. The important aspects of the second sector are the mechanical grip, which must be a lot, as well as the engine power.
Key point: British drivers' experience
Travisanutto highlights how the experience of the British drivers is crucial, to the point that loads of teams select some of them, in order to use their experience and knowledge of the track to gain advantage.
“I remember that in 2017 Danny Keirle won the World Championship at PFI, also because he knew the track very well, so several teams are now using this strategy: choosing a local driver in order to reach interesting results, especially on wet conditions.”
A really important topic regarding this event is the weather condition: we know that British weather is unpredictable, and this happens at PFI too. This makes everything more uncertain and in such a tight weekend in terms of performance, this can give us surprising results.
Drivers' predictions and expectations
For the World Championship, we asked some drivers who’ll be part of this event to tell us about their expectations and how they feel about this weekend. There’s who, after winning the OKJ World Championship in 2023, is now ready to make a step forward, like Dries Van Langendonck:
“For the World Championship we are in a different category so the pressure will not be too high. We’re just looking to make experience, have fun and try to win again.”
On the other side, Matheus Morgatto has already won the OK World Championship in 2022 and is ready to confirm himself again:
“I’m looking forward to the World Championship weekend. I have high expectations after the year we’ve had so far being always in the top 5 in this category. Conditions can be really tricky in PFI but I feel confident and I’m sure we can be competitive. I’m excited for it and let’s keep the head up for another World championship fight.”
While the Brazilian driver already has experience in this class, there’s Thibaut Ramaekers who’s a rookie in the Senior category, and that’s how he described his first experience in the category:
“For my first year in Senior class I hope to win the championship, I know it’s not gonna be easy but I think I have the speed, like the whole year in every track, so I hope the best but we will see.”
For the Italian audience, in OKJ, there’s Iacopo Martinese amongst the contenders for the title. He feels ready to make the most out of this weekend:
"This year, arriving at the world championship we really expect to do well, we aim for the maximum. The speed we have shown in the rounds of the European championship gives us so much confidence. [... ] We worked hard to win the title this year. Let’s see what we can do."
The feelings of those drivers who'll race on "home soil"
As previously said by Travisanutto, having at least one local driver is crucial for the teams, since he can bring experience and great results. But how do Brits drivers feel about racing on home soil for such an important race? We asked Noah Baglin and Alfie Slater, both OKJ drivers, to tell us their feelings on the eve of such an important weekend.
Noah Baglin:
“The goal for the world championship is to win. It’ll be a hard race due to the technical corners and the unpredictable weather, but if we work properly, we have our chance to win.”
Alfie Slater:
“I am very excited for my first race back on home soil in a very long time. What a great opportunity to race with Ricky Flynn Motorsport at PFI back when I started my racing journey. Looking forward to giving my best at the World Championship.”
After a detailed track analysis by Lorenzo Travisanutto and drivers’ thoughts on the upcoming weekend, we’re ready to have fun and enjoy the most important and most awaited event of the karting season…may the best win!
Comments