THE FIRST TIME KARTING FOR F1 DRIVERS

Luca Barnaba

28 August 2022 • 9 min. read

There are those who immediately drove fast and those who crashed. Those who made a "nice mess" and those who tried without their parents knowing. Simple and funny, almost normal, stories of people (Norris, Liuzzi, Kobayashi, etc.) who then achieved special things with a steering wheel in their hands.

In relation to F1 drivers, sportsmen who have reached the pinnacle of motorsport during their career, it is natural to imagine them driving a motor vehicle (obviously a kart!) for the first time ... as predestined people! In your mind you imagine a movie scene, in which the little future talents draw perfect trajectories and whiz smoothly with their diapers still on. Instead ... There are those who drove a kart for the first time at the venerable age (considering today's standards) of 12 years (only to find themselves in F1 a few years later) and those who literally made "a nice mess" of things (their words). We had sensed that the very first time of the most envied drivers on the planet could be less "like a dream" than one could imagine thanks to the stories of Ivan Capelli (read the "Editorial - Ivan Capelli: my first time karting") and Jaime Alguersuari (read the "Editorial - Jaime Alguersuari: my first kart race"). Thanks to the direct testimonies of Lando Norris, Kamui Kobayashi, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Beppe Gabbiani, Nico Rosberg, Siegfried Stohr, Sebastien Buemi and Gianni Morbidelli (or their parents) we now have confirmation.

Lando Norris

“My first time in a kart was in 2007 (at the age of 8, editor's note), in an asphalted square in front of my house. With cones scattered here and there I gave shape to the circuit of my debut and I started to drive a kart. Honestly, I don't remember exactly what I felt, but I must have certainly enjoyed myself a lot given the turn my life took from that moment on… Ah, how can I forget? That day I wasn't the only one to try the Norris track, my brother did too. Except that for him the experience was not all that pleasant since he had an accident after a while”.

The karting career of Lando Norris (from 2008 to 2014) is studded with successes among which a European KFJ CIK-FIA and a WSK Euro Series in 2013 as well as a CIK-FIA KF world championship won in 2014, at 14 years of age (at the time the youngest winner of a world championship). Since 2019, the British driver has been racing in Formula 1 with the McLaren F1 Team.