INTERVIEW WITH MIKE WILSON, THE KARTING RECORD HOLDER

In karting, there's only one record-breaking driver: Mike Wilson. The English driver is the only kart driver to have won the FIA ​​Karting World Championship six times (1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1988, and 1989), all in the 135cc Formula K single-speed category. This record remains unbeaten (one of the longest-standing not only in motorsport, but in sport in general) and is destined to last for many years to come (perhaps forever...), given that the average stint in karting today is around four or five seasons. Wilson's successes take on even more significance when considering the opponents (to name just a few: Ayrton Senna, Terry Fullerton, and Alessandro Zanardi) that Wilson faced (and beat) during his professional career. That is, the period between 1978, the year in which Bruno Grana (the historic founder of IAME) proposed that he move from England to Italy to compete in the main international competitions, providing him with Birel (now Birelart) chassis and IAME/Parilla engines, and 1989, the year in which Wilson decided to "hang up his helmet". Yet his retirement from racing did not mark the end of the love story between the English record holder and karting: Mike, in fact, first dedicated himself to the creation of his own range of chassis, marketed (between 1990 and 2006) with the MW brand, which was also employed in the racing world by future F1 World Champions, such as Fernando Alonso; then, he took on a full-time role as a consultant (a position he still holds today for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team's Driver Development program) where he achieved further success, helping to scout and launch young talents who first established themselves in karting and then rose as promising youngsters to F1. Do names like Lance Stroll and Andrea Kimi Antonelli ring a bell? It's not uncommon, therefore, to encounter Wilson in the paddocks of major international karting competitions. On one of these occasions, we took the opportunity to interview him. With him, we delved into his memory album: from his early days in England, through stories and anecdotes of his career and his rivalries with Senna and Fullerton, to his perspective on the differences between contemporary karting and that of his time.