The 2024 European championship tracks: Valencia analyzed by Lorenzo Travisanutto
- Francesca Zito
- Mar 20, 2024
- 4 min read
The 2024 FIA Karting season is now ready to start: Valencia karting track, which will host the first round of the European championship for the OK and OKJ classes, will get the ball rolling. But what is to expect from a track like the Spanish one, and who are the contenders for the first round? Lorenzo Travisanutto, multiple times world champion and currently driver coach, tells us everything about it.
The importance of the "Champions of the future"
In the last few years, the COTF (Champions of the future) played such a key role: launched in 2020 by RGMMC, follows the rules and the season of the FIA Karting and its goal is to prepare teams and drivers for the European and World championships. COTF takes place in the same karting tracks that host the CIK-FIA championships few weeks before the major events.
This is just what happened for the initial stage of the European Championship in Valencia: two weeks before the big start, teams and drivers involved in the FIA Karting season took part in the COTF, to analyze the track and gain experience.
“The Champions of the future gives many references, and that’s why loads of teams improve a lot before the rounds of the FIA Championship” – this way Lorenzo Travisanutto highlights the great importance of the COTF.
The only variables from the COTF to the European championship can be the weather and the track temperature: few weeks ago the drivers faced a wet track on the last day, with more or less 15 degrees. This weekend no rain is expected though, but sun and 20 degrees, so track temperature can also reach 30°, and this can change the game, since some drivers that are under the spot light, just like McLaughlin, showed a strong pace on wet track, but struggled a bit with dry conditions.
Key point: tire management
How often do we talk about tire management in championships such as F1, WEC, GT and feeder series? Well, this is an important topic in karting as well, especially in Valencia.
“This year we changed tires, we switched from MG to Maxxis: the behavior is similar but drivers need time to adapt to it” explains Travisanutto, and adds “it’s a track where degradation on the tires is a key point, so this is going to be the most important aspect”.
In addition to this, drivers’ experience will make the difference: loads of expert drivers usually perform better on used tires rather than new ones. The opposite happens to the younger drivers, as Lorenzo said.
“It’s a very aggressive track on the tires, and we’ve already noticed it last year, but with new tires the degradation is enhanced, so it’s going to be crucial for the driver to make the difference.”
Another important aspect is the engine. Valencia karting track is a fast one: here OK class can reach 140 km/h, but there are some slow corners where the driver must be focused at keeping good speed in the exit in order for the engine to not suffer. Much is therefore linked to the ability of the drivers and their driving style.
"The engine component is important especially because there is often a lot of wind, in fact in qualifying the slipstream is key."
Predictions for the first round of the European championship
Since the European championship often reflects what happens at the "Champions of the Future", amongst the favorites in OK it is right to mention the Brazilian Gomez, who still struggles more with new tires, Ramaekers and McLaughlin, with the latter winning the first round of the COTF on wet track. We can’t forget the young Prema driver, Oleksandr Bondarev, who finished his race on the second step of the podium after a great comeback, where he gained 12 places. Another important name is the one of Joe Turney, that needs to use his experience in order to avoid mistakes just like the one of few weeks ago: the brit driver received a 5s penalty first, and then started fighting with Gomez, before spinning on the last lap, thwarting any chance to cross the line in the top places.
Eyes are also on the 16-year-old Eyckmans, who races with Birel ART and finished the first round of the Champions of the Future in the top5 after recovering 11 spots. It is especially on the Belgian driver that the Italian team managed by Ronni Sala will bet everything: in fact, Birel ART never achieved a European title in the OK class and this would be a memorable result for the team from Lissone.
As for the Junior class, the names are always the same: 2023 World Champion Van Langendonck, Coronel, Costoya, Schaufler and those who just like them showed great pace and tire management in the first round. We do not expect great twists from this category but nobody can ever know: for the team Victorylane, founded by the brother of the F2 driver Victor Martins, Nicolas, it would be important to confirm the great result achieved a few weeks ago.
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