Hello, I am 18 years old and I want to make a formula career with go kart and e sport. Am I too late for these karting champions?
Karting really isn’t a career or a door to anything. You could go straight to learning cars, assuming you have the finances for it.
Karting is mostly just fun, here in the states at least. Yeah there’s pro karting but it’s a very small group and there’s no prize money, really. At least not enough to live off of.
Seems like pros here make money from other activities related to karting like coaching or the like.
I was talking with one of our top American pros and he was considering maybe switching to RC racing (radio controlled little cars) because there is a ton of folks into that who spend a bunch on it. He was saying that there were good opportunities to make money for pros in that compared to Karting.
In any case, 18 is fine to learn and compete but it will take a number of years to get really quick. But, it’s possible. Karting mostly isn’t a pathway to anything other than itself.
Esports is more realistic as that’s a part of this that’s experiencing explosive growth. However, the aliens are called aliens for a reason. The best are crazy talented and make most pro racers seem like punters. Admittedly, it’s a different thing, however.
But yes, you could compete in the biggest series in karting at 18. It just would be very expensive and you’d need likely a lot of time, practice and race experience before you are kinda on pace.
You’re late but if you have enough money (and at least SOME talent) you can reach any height. Start karting, see how you do, and if you are successful, then you can see how far you can get. It will take a lot of money, effort, and commitment, especially as you are starting late, but if you have those things, it’s not impossible. Keep in mind you will need millions of dollars to GET to the F3/F2 ladder. And then there is no guarantee you will get to F1. It’s really a next-to-impossible dream these days except for well-funded and talented drivers who are marketable.
Formula car career might be out of the cards at this point. Most kids are moving to the lower level formulae at age 14 now, and graduating to F2 by your age. There is a lot to do for you between those steps, so you can expect you won’t even be close to F2 before your mid-20s. That’s just the reality of the championships you need to compete in.
However, there still appear to be opportunities in GT or touring car racing, and they aren’t nearly as expensive as chasing formula cars. Many drivers here are able to make pro careers in GT racing while bringing almost no budget, just having connections, networking, and being a real business-minded pro about it.
You could make a career out of karting if you are skilled and can compete at the highest levels of international karting, but those opportunities are scarce these days. And you will still need hundreds of thousands of Euros to get to the top levels of karting.
ESports has no barrier for entry really financially, other than buying a sim setup.
I would say get set up karting with a local team and enter some events after getting some practice in, see how it goes, and see if you have the drive to pursue it further. If things fall into place, nothing is impossible, but be very realistic about how difficult it will be to make it as a professional race driver.
You need to be marketable and bring sponsors and results. If you are missing just one of those, it’s very unlikely you can make it to the top levels of pro racing, unfortunately.
yes my friend started f1 e sports at 18, now 24 years old and his first season in f2. I asked my friend and he advised me to start karting and focus on e-sports at the same time.
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^This gets overlooked way too often. Talent is not enough to get a drive, running a professional team costs big money.
Karting is a great way to get experience and seat time. Not to mention a lot of fun. It’s also an extremely high level of competition if you take it to that level. It’s a great form of Motorsport in its own right.
Just don’t make the mistake (as many have, and continue to) of expecting that karting will increase your chances of getting a drive in cars. It’s rarely a factor. Looking at F3 or F2, sure, lots (maybe all) of those drivers have karting on their resumes. For every one of those drivers there’s another 1000 that competed in karting too.
Personally I would do esports and karting, but I would be very selective about the events I run to ensure I’m getting a good return on the money being spent.
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Yes, I will also do karting with esports. It would be great to have double success. In addition, we use time quickly. My friend competing in F2 had done karting before and had a budget problem and continued with esports.
Cem Bolukbasi ? He was on iRacing far before the F1 esports, and also he did karting at an earlier age IIRC Bolukbasi Cem - Kartcom
If its cem he started with karting far earlier before he started with esports so he had already a good basis. If you just want to start at all with real racing without any background, than you just need a biiig bucket full of money and also some talent.
For him the esport was just a door opener, but the door had to find was through real racing.
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Yes, cem. I asked him, he gave me this answer.
You can start karting. Start e-sports on the one hand, go karting, you can do any kind of karting you want.
Karting will not make you faster in the formula, it will only affect your driving.
That’s why you can go karting. I say start with karting, on the other hand, you can participate in championships in e-sports that will put you in real cars.
Maybe I don’t know if I can find a sponsor, it’s harder. I don’t want an ordinary life for myself. If my father had known that such a thing existed, maybe I could have started. but in vain. So the job fell to me. If I still have the opportunity, I’d like to start.
I mean you know which costs will come to you to start karting on that level?
The odds are probably against you, starting at 18. How about, starting your own business, make a sh*t ton of money and pay your way into racing and enjoy the sport forever. The odds are significantly better to become a multi-millionaire than a pro driver.
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Yes I know. I wanted to give a good life to my future children. Thinking that I am talented, I wanted to start this profession. I don’t have a father who can pay these fees instantly. I gave up on a 4 year wish. I guess I will have to accept a boring life, I have to work for 200 dollars for 1 month. Thank you to everyone who helped.
Is it already the 1st of april?
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I am not kidding. Why do you say that?
Ok so you don’t care about racing, you just want money and/or clout ? There are easier ways to do that, and many of them. It seems you have no passion for racing, give it up.
At 18 you will face kids that have been racing for ever and that much more experienced than you, with more money and more connections.
Let’s be nice and accommodating. There could be a language barrier here as well.
OP if you want to try and make it your career, go for it, just be realistic and understand it isn’t just a matter of driving and someone hands you a ride if you have good results. You NEED tons of money to make it happen these days.
Do what you can afford, if that’s esports or karting or both, and see where that gets you to start.
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This is why so many drivers end up not being able to drive anything. They spend all of their money racing, and spend no time towards education. I’m seeing it with a couple of people I know right now.
They’ll end up with no skills, no job, and have to live a very average life, probably never making enough money to race karts.
On the other hand, you can push yourself in school, get a high paying job, heck, maybe make millions. Now that you have disposable income, race karts or cars with that money.
Since you’re 18, and from what I understand, don’t have millions of dollars laying around, putting all your effort and money into racing will not lead you to much, if any, racing in your future.
You have a significantly higher chance of making millions in some other business, than having a career driving cars quickly.
I don’t mean to be grim, this is just what I have seen happen to some people I know.
If you want to give your kids a good future, than throwing your time and money into racing (before you have that time and money) is probably a bad choice.
This doesn’t mean don’t race karts or sim racing. You can totally do that right now. It’s a ton of fun. It just means don’t go into it thinking this is how you’re going to make money. Best of luck though, you never know what can happen.
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No no I know this is not a business to make money. I don’t want a life like ordinary, boring and empty talkers around me. I’ve been trying to join a team for 7 months. I’m sending emails, calling but no answer. Actually there is a team. I don’t have a driving license and I need 3 years of driving license to test and race on that team. they compete in both karting and gt4 European series in that team. They also provide support. and that’s the team I’m trying to contact.
At the same time Karting will improve racecraft and overall driver ability, understanding lines, moves etc. depending on what you’re aspiring to do maybe start by talking to some family members who own or pull weight in business for a small sponsorship. Doing this will make you improve your people skills and relations a lot in the Motorsport business is relations and money. Most companies won’t sponsor a karter for Karting because there’s no real return on investment for them unless you can provide something else such as a business connection. But you have to have the drive to go fast not just a desire for lavish life. Desire and will can get you far but business will get you to the next step.