I honestly don’t think the FIA has any coherent strategy or end goal in terms of bodywork. They can’t even keep good staff. I suspect it’s just drip drab of someone proposes something and because the nature of the modern world, they have to follow it up… and it just continues to cause the growths on karts.
The bigger issue is once karting is locked into being a “stepping stone” with paddocks full of under-16s, the whole concept of what a “kart” is goes out the window. The direction is one-way traffic towards so-called safety.
Nothing. There are 11 bodies in the UK that issue permits of exemption from the Road Traffic Act. You just need that plus insurance and you’re off. Nora92 even offer a full package of permitting + insurance, which is why so many motocross clubs use them - and a few kart clubs too.
I generally agree, but with kids now making up the bulk of the grid, the tolerance for risk has dropped dramatically. We’ve had a fair few “close calls” in the UK recently. The powers that be know that now karting is being framed aggressively “Formula 5” in all but name, any serious injury or fatality will get magnified. My answer is more drastic than most, but short of banning kids from karting, I don’t see how the direction of travel changes.
As David inferred, most of karting just copies the FIA’s direction, eventually.
When it comes to breakaways/alternatives, I don’t think the demographic of karting now would support it. FIA is F1. Parents won’t look elsewhere - that’s 80% of the market gone.
The US was insulated for a long time because you created karting and had the GPKDA and other bodies before anyone else. You were doing organised karting long before the FIA cared.
You can argue the FIA has already lost some control with spec classes. In practice, Rotax and X30 govern their own classes. But on chassis and bodywork, everyone still builds to FIA regs. Motorsport UK does publish its own chassis regs and they do differ, but no one pays attention.
Philosophically, I’d argue neither the FIA nor the RAC (now Motorsport UK) created the regulations for karting. They weren’t first, and culturally it was never “their” motorsport to begin with. Look at the British Go Kart Association, or the way the US ran its scene. The problem is I don’t think the willpower or robustness exists in today’s paddock to mount a genuine alternative. And how would that alternative take shape? Once these devices get added it’s so difficult to take them off. I am not sure what could be proposed that would be any different tot he FIA unless someone took a drastic decision regarding bodywork, which I don’t think anyone has the stomach for outside of historic karting.
I suspect more things are in the pipeline too. This can not be stopped.
The FIA already have high-back seats on the book in terms of homologation:
Why these aren’t mandated yet, I am not sure. Tillett did a great job getting in the way when this was first proposed, but since the tide is always more safety… it’s only a matter of time.
Only one company is currently homologated. suspect these seat’s safety credentials are inconclusive. I think creating ‘points’ on a kart that would take the load on a drivers neck probably isn’t the best idea. You need full cages, belts and HANS if you’re going to really make these viable… which is where we’ll end up.
