According to FIA`s HomePage the KZ classes is going to use the option tyre, that is a hard compound, its really going downhill for them.
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Unpopular opinion. I kinda like the idea of having KZ slide around on hard rubber. Anything to make karts look more “lively” is alright with me. That said, “hard” seems to be the new medium.
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yes, in theory still plenty of grip. Vega Greens aren’t much slower than a white.
The recent Danny Formal incident inspired a lot of driver in this race of Euro OK 
Turney winning in OK is very interesting. Great comeback. I’m excited to see how Ramaekers does this season! On the OKJ side of things, Martinese finally gets his first win—a break from the Schauffler and Van Langendonk dominance we have seen. OK looks like a fascinating battle… Gomez, Turney which remain from before and some new contenders!
2024 FIA Karting Historic Super Cup in the UK
Essentially (I have insider knowledge) Maxxis was absolute SH**. Teams were running 0.1 bar just to get through the final, and the quickest lap times would be 2 seconds off of qualifying pace.
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Looking at OTK they like to own what they use so… I would assume they bought it for reliability purposes
For me, the OK seems like a good fit of an engine for the tracks in Europe. When you look at the tracks, they are all fast, flowy, tracks with insane amounts of grip.
As for cash grabs, this may be the case. However, I would argue that the US has more of a problem here.
The average price for a team is around 6,000 for a mechanic, two karts, tenting, coaching, data, etc. Another thing is that if you break something you get it for free.
Now compared to American karting, you pay upwards of 6,000 (for a large team) for the same as a European team, but you get nothing for free. You have to buy EVERYTHING.
I do agree with the situation with the FIA though. Seems ridiculous
Also, I remember last year an interview with Tinini criticizing hard tyres
https://www.vroomkart.com/news/44330/face-to-face-with-mr-crg
How it feels watching everything implode as a now outsider :
(low key incredibly sad to see what they are doing to my 3 years of dedication to the championships, but it’s just because i am too emotionally attached. I need to let go…)
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23 for KZ (‘entered’) at this weekends opening Euro round. KZ2 down to 68 drivers too, dropping from over 90 from last year.
‘Junior Academy’ gets prominence in the headline for the event too.
Disgraceful
CIK-FIA imploding will just leave room for the IAME/Rotax series to strive. For example, in the Benelux, the IAME Benelux Series and the GK4 are really popular, even more now with the addition of KA100.
While I do think hard tyres would help keep the costs down, I don’t think the CIK-FIA should compromise on the tyre softness (or on anything for that matter) in KZ/KZ2 categories.
But they absolutely need to get rid of the OK/OKJ engines that are irrelevant in the karting world (as were the KF engines), and use KA100 / X30 for juniors / seniors. The key thing is that you won’t lower the cost that much, but your machine will be a lot more relevant and will allow you to run regional and national races as well.
These classes should not have FIA World/European Championship status. They are hobby recreational classes that are focused on the competitors, and they themselves wouldn’t want this kind of status. The drivers too… the OK classes do serve somewhat of a function in that they swallow up some of the insane spending parents. So OK protects the hobby classes from them.
Either way the FIA’s problem is they decided to swallow the F1 koolaid. Almost all problems start there.
I would agree, but in this current economical climate, there must be a paradigm shift, whatever it is.
Yeah, but I don’t think hobby/competitive should be 100% separate. At least not anymore.
It is separate. This is formula racing. The spec-stuff should do its own thing.
If you put the big spenders in with the hobby karters, all you do is push out the hobby karters.
Hobby karts are already being pushed away by the costs while the big spenders are already separated.
Don’t give room for people to spend by locking the FIA OK/OKJ championships in a spec series (Like the FIA Academy but relevant engines).
That is the perks of KA100/X30 engines. Those are mature engines, you might want to throw a shit ton of money at it, it won’t be really effective