Kees van de Grint:

Have regulations killed inventiveness in karting?

Once upon a time, there was karting. The one of 1956 (birthdate of this sport) and of the years that immediately followed: pioneering, artisanal, experimental, drenched in inventiveness. At a certain point in the history of this sport, however, homologations and regulations come onto the scene. And something changes. Indeed, it changes. The constructors’ desire and possibility of risking and revolutionising - from a technical point of view - are transformed into an extremely difficult challenge, even for the most sparkling of geniuses. The result? We head towards today’s karting, characterised by serial production, in the hands of a few big companies, in a market that has a low risk appetite. How did this skin change occur? What advantages and disadvantages has it brought? Kees van de Grint explains it to us, as he has personally lived this evolution, from a privileged position. “Following the four major revolutions in chassis design, which defined the four technical eras of karting history between the 1960s and the 1970s (read “A journey into the 4 technical eras of karting history”), only evolutions followed. In the early days, with very limited regulations, chassis designers could work out their own ideas and eventually go back to the drawing board and try again. But when chassis homologation was introduced in 1980, it became too big of a financial risk to think outside the traditional box.