Photo: Top Speed

New McLaren junior Christian Costoya has been announced as doing a double Formula 4 programme in Europe with Prema.

The 15-year-old Spaniard will race full-time in Italian F4 and sister championship E4 with the team, which he made his single-seater debut with last month in UAE4. He took a win in round three, and sits sixth in the points with one round to go.

Costoya became a McLaren junior last December, at the end of a year in which he was CIK-FIA European Karting champion, WSK Euro Series champion and WSK Super Master Series runner-up on OK karts. He had previously been European championship runner-up at the junior level.

“Very happy to join Prema for the 2026 F4 season,” said Costoya. “This marks a new chapter for me in a new category. I’m fully committed to giving my best, continuing to progress and improve as a driver, and making the most of this opportunity.”

Stephen Mitas has become Prema’s team principal and chief executive officer amid off-season overhaul of the Italian outfit.

“Christian showed great potential in karting and we are delighted to welcome him to our team for a very challenging and important step in his career,” he said of the team’s latest driver signing.

“We will give him our best support as he approaches the transition to single-seater and gets ready for the year ahead.”

Also racing in E4 and Italian F4 this year is Ludovico Busso, who will be part of US Racing’s line-up. He is currently racing for the team in the Iberia-based Formula Winter Series, and sits 10th in the standings with one podium.

The 16-year-old Italian debuted in single-seaters with a FWS cameo last year. He drove for Viola Formula Racing, and remained with the team for Italian F4. After round three he was the team’s only driver, and after round five he switched to US’s line-up. That also meant a team switch following one E4 round. Busso failed to score in both championships, and came 23rd in E4’s standings.

The post McLaren junior Christian Costoya to race for Prema in E4 and Italian F4 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Top Speed

Christian Costoya and Sasha Bondarev won UAE4’s second and third races at Dubai Autodrome today.

QMMF by Hitech’s Nasser Al Thani missed the reversed-grid race two due to amassing too many penalty points, and at the front of the 38-car grid was Xcel Motorsport’s Jarrett Clark. Prema’s Costoya started second, ahead of PHM Racing’s Iacopo Martinese, Prema’s Payton Westcott and R-ace GP’s Emily Cotty.

Costoya took the lead on the inside before the opening corner, and at turn two Mumbai Falcons’ Alp Aksoy had a race-ending collision. Xcel Motorsport’s Joseph Smith retired in the pits, and Pinnacle Motorsport’s Ryusho Nakazato came in for a new nosecone. The clean-up required a safety car intervention, and the field was released again on lap three.

There was lots of fighting in the points positions thereon. Clark held off Westcott until she was overtaken by R-ace’s Andy Consani on lap four, but Prema’s David Cosma Cristofor was able to clear both. Bondarev passed Mumbai Falcons team-mate Niccolo Maccagnani for seventh, and the top 10 was completed by R-ace’s race one winner Kenzo Craigie and Yas Heat Academy’s Adam Al Azhari.

Consani went past Cosma at turn 10 on lap five, and Craigie overtook Maccagnani. Once they were back on the pit straight, Consani took third and Bondarev overtook Westcott. Bondarev also got ahead of Cosma before the safety car was called and then red flags waved, as a crash had sent Evans GP’s Rafael Vaessen rolling repeatedly.

The race restarted with two laps behind the safety car, and the order at the time red flags waved. When the field was released, three laps remained. Consani took two attempts to demote Martinese to third on the restart lap, then tried chasing McLaren junior Costoya who picked up his first car racing win.

Bondarev overtook Clark through turn 10 on the final lap, and Maccagnani retired in the pits after dropping out of the points. Hitech GP’s Scott Lindblom started 36th but charged to 10th.

Qualifying two set race three’s grid, and Craigie set a 2m00.3s to comfortably claim pole by 0.496 seconds over Bondarev. Consani was pipped to second by 0.005s, and trailing by 0.919s and 0.996s respectively in fourth and fifth were Aksoy and Cotty. While the top five were spread out on pace, a second split the next 21 drivers.

Vaeesen had to miss the race and a two-place penalty put Maccagnani 10th on the grid, behind Cosma, Lindblom, Hitech’s Theo Palmer and Costoya.

Craigie moved to the inside then back to the outside down the long pit straight on lap one, but Bondarev was still able to sweep around his outside at the first corner to take a lead he would not give up. Aksoy grabbed third, and at turn six there was deamatic contact as Yas Heat’s Zakaria Doleh drive over the rear of R-ace’s Tamas Gender but the latter carried on driving for several corners with Doleh riding on top.

Cosma tried passing Aksoy into turn 10, and actually completed the pass exiting the corner before Aksoy got back alongside. Consani was ahead of both before the safety car was deployed, and Martinese and then Mumbai Falcons’ Kingsley Zheng pitted.

When racing resumed on lap four, Consani made a late dive on Craigie into turn 10 and there was almost contact. After that, the top two began pulling away.

Lindblom climbed from eighth to sixth ahead of Palmer, Cotty and Maccagnani. The latter two swapped places after a three-wide moment into turn one on lap five, then Costoya and Pinnacle’s Rowan Campbell-Pilling passed Cotty too.

There was another three-wide move four laps later. Maccagnani and Costoya went past Palmer down the pit straight, and Cotty made progress attempting tried getting alongside Palmer through turn one. She had another go but on the outside on the penultimate lap.

Craigie got back onto Bondarev’s tail with two laps to go, and at turn 10 he feinted a move on the final lap which led to Bondarev locking up. The leader stayed ahead though, and victory extended his points lead.

Lindblom overtook Aksoy for fifth mid-race, but a 10s penalty for causing a collision demoted him to seventh behind Maccagnani and Costoya while Aksoy dropped to ninth late on.

Results round-up
Race 2 (10 laps)
1 Christian Costoya Prema 26m02.588s
2 Andy Consani R-ace GP +0.739s
3 Iacopo Martinese PHM Racing +1.817s
4 Sasha Bondarev Mumbai Falcons +3.932s
5 David Cosma Cristofor Prema +4.766s
6 Jarrett Clark Xcel Motorsport +5.713s
7 Kenzo Craigie R-ace GP +5.770s
8 Payton Westcott Prema +6.244s
9 Adam Al Azhari Yas Heat Academy +7.555s
10 Scott Lindblom Hitech GP +8.141s
Fastest lap: Costoya, 2m02.858s

Race 3 (14 laps)
1 Bondarev 31m43.874s
2 Craigie +0.800s
3 Consani +4.864s
4 Cosma +12.822s
5 Niccolo Maccagnani Mumbai Falcons +17.835s
6 Costoya +21.535s
7 Lindblom +24.179s
8 Theo Palmer Hitech GP +26.158s
9 Alp Aksoy Hasan Mumbai Falcons +26.421s
10 Cotty +26.655s
Pole: Craigie, 2m00.300s   FL: Bondarev, 2m02.393s

Championship standings
1 Bondarev 157   2 Consani 133   3 Craigie 102   4 Cosma 79   5 Maccagnani 73   6 Costoya 59   7 Lindblom 47   8 Aksoy 46   9 Cotty 37   10 Al Azhari 33

The post New McLaren junior Costoya and Bondarev win at Dubai in UAE4 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: KSP Reportages

Karting is the training ground of most drivers before single-seaters, and Formula Scout follows all the major series to see which talents may eventually burst onto the car racing scene, and grab F1 teams’ attentions

Formula 1 teams consistently have an eye on karting now, with 13 drivers across five teams forming the contingent of karters who are members of driver development programmes. Mercedes-AMG and Williams have the most faith in the youngest of talent, with four each, and Andrea Kimi Antonelli stepped up to F1 last year with Mercedes after being one of its proteges since he was in junior karting.

Back in 2021, Antonelli was proving himself on OK karts against Joe Turney, who remains one of the best in the world (and is gradually becoming a legend of the sport) to this day. But since he is a mainstay of the senior karting scene, along with Sean Butcher, neither were in contention for Formula Scout’s list of 2025’s top talents.

We will applaud their achievements regardless, with Turney winning the USA Winter Series and coming 11th in the USA’s SuperNationals in the X30 Pro class, being SuperNats runner-up on KA100 Senior karts, and on OK karts finishing as runner-up in the CIK-FIA World Championship for a third time, coming fifth in the Champions of the Future championship and eighth in WSK’s Super Master Series.

Butcher raced in Rotax Senior class of karts all year, and was Rotax Max Challenge Euro Trophy and Winter Series champion, Grand Finals runner-up and finished ninth in the International Trophy.

Key

WSK: Champions Cup (CC), Euro Series (Euro), Final Cup (FC), Open Series (OS), Super Master Series (SMS), Super Cup (SC)
CIK-FIA: European championship (CIK European), World championship (CIK Worlds), World Cup (FIA WC), Karting Academy Trophy (FIA Academy Trophy)
Rotax Max Challenge: Euro Trophy, International Trophy (Int. Trophy), Grand Finals, Winter Series (WS), Golden Trophy
IAME: Euro Series (Euro), Warriors Final (WF), Winter Cup (WC)
Champions of the Future (CotF)
USA SuperNationals (SuperNats), Winter Series (WS)

Thibaut Ramaekers BELGIUM 16y/o
OK CIK World champion, 2nd in CotF, 5th in CIK European, 27th in WSK SMS   X30 Snr 5th in IAME WC

World Championship celebrations

Ramaekers first featured on this list in 2023 when he was a frontrunner in multiple championship in junior karting, and impressed on his OK debut in the senior class.

He missed out on 2024 inclusion due to being up-and-down as he embarked on incomplete campaigns, but he was certainly one of the fastest drivers around.

That included being runner-up in CotF, a feat he repeated this year. In round one he was competing at the front until retirement in his superheat required him to climb from 20th to ninth in the final. He won the superheat in round two and was runner-up in the final, and was on the podium in the most important races again in round three.

Round four was less impressive, but in the Kristianstad finale he romped to pole, four heat wins and three later podiums (the last after leading the final) to take second in the standings.

The CIK-FIA European Championship went the other way, starting on a high at Campillos with pole, three heats win, victory in his superheat and then fourth in the final. In the following rounds he was near the front but only won one heat, and retired in the wet final of the last round.

He bounced back in the style at the World championship, with three wins and two second places in the heats, coming second in the superheat then winning the most important karting race of them all: the final.

Filippo Sala ITALY 14y/o
OK 2nd in WSK Euro, 3rd in WSK FC, 4th in WSK SMS, 4th in CIK European, 10th in CIK Worlds, 18th in CotF

Photo: Ferrari

The Ferrari Driver Academy signed Sala last April, and worked to ensure the Italian was able to covert pace into big points.

There was a consistent problem in many events he had competed in prior to 2025, as he was usually the driver to beat in his qualifying group but then would make mistakes later on – such as in finals – when it proved more costly in positions. For example, Sala came fifth in the 2024 European championship despite never finishing a round in a position higher than that.

That was in the OK Junior class, while Sala raced in senior karting last year. It was an impressive rookie campaign, making the top four in four championships.

The WSK SMS was first on his schedule, and Sala finished his debut round in eighth. In round two he won the final, going from third to first on the last lap, then non-finishes in the big races during round three scuppered his title hopes. Sala was runner-up in round four, and competitive in round five but it couldn’t put him higher than fourth in the points table.

That was a strong place to start from in one of the most competitive grids, and Sala carried similar form into the European championship. He was the most consistent driver there, with his lowest scoring round netting him 10 points. Every other full-timer had a worse weekend, and Sala won heats at every round. A bumper penalty dropped him from third to 10th in round one’s final, he had to climb the order to 13th in round two, and fourth in the season’s last race put him fourth in the standings.

His concurrent CotF season began on a high, but after a pole and heat wins in the first two rounds he then went points-free in the next two due to non-finishes and then an awful qualifying result.

Sala was the second strongest driver in the WSK Euro Series, rose through the field to finish the World championship in 10th and and winning the final round (despite showing less competitive pace than in the trickier previous events) put him third in WSK’s Final Cup.

Christian Costoya SPAIN 15y/o
OK CIK European champion, WSK Euro champion, 2nd in WSK SMS, 3rd in CotF, 14th in CIK Worlds

Leading the European Championship

The All Road Management protege, now a McLaren junior too, looked unstoppable at times, particularly in the WSK Euro Series where only two drivers surpassed even a third of the points tally he amassed.

He went unbeaten in both rounds, and in the big races usually had a winning margin surpassing three seconds. In karting, that’s a big gap to have at the front.

The European championship featured similar domination, and he was crowned early despite a points-free final round. Costoya topped his qualifying group three out of four times, went unbeaten in round three at Viterbo, did plenty of winning in round two and still got heat wins at the other two events.

While the World championship didn’t go to plan, finishing 14th, Costoya had already more than proven his brilliance having won rounds and contended for the title in CotF and WSK SMS too.

Noah Baglin ENGLAND 13y/o
OK-J CIK World champion, CotF champion, 2nd in WSK SMS, 2nd in WSK FC, 3rd in CIK European   KA100 Jr USA SuperNats winner   X30 Jr 22nd in USA SuperNats

En route to World Championship victory

Having lost the World championship in the OK-J class on the last lap in 2024, Baglin made sure he got the job done this year. He won five heats, his superheat and lights-to-flag in the final with a winning margin of 4.281s.

The Ferrari junior, racing for Prema, was a frontrunner in everything he competed in and that included three classes of kart.

In OK-J he took the CotF title, but his season started on the backfoot as qualifying 16th in round one meant he relied on racecraft to get top-10 results in the races. Despite qualifying seventh for round two, heat victories meant he was on pole for the superheat and he won both that and the final.

Podium sprees followed, then Baglin put it all together to win the final of the final round and that cast him into a title-clinching points lead as his rivals had dreadful weekends and fell behind.

Just two races going differently could’ve made Baglin the WSK SMS and WSK FC champion too. Dean Hoogendoorn, who took the WSK SMS title by three points, edged Baglin to victory by 0.032s in round one’s pre-final with a last-lap pass and by 0.026s in round two’s final. A one-place penalty also took round one victory away from Baglin.

Bosco Arias denied Baglin the WSK FC title by one point, 15th in round two’s final proving costly, and if he had not been disqualified from the whole of round three of the European championship for using an offensive hand signal against another driver he would’ve been at least runner-up in that too.

Over in the USA, he won the major SuperNationals in the KA100 Junior class against the country’s top talents.

Dean Hoogendoorn NETHERLANDS 13y/o
OK-J CIK European champion, WSK SMS champion, 3rd in CIK Worlds, 5th in CotF, 6th in WSK FC   X30 Jr USA SuperNats winner   KA100 Jr 3rd in USA SuperNats

Preparing for a major race

There’s often a trend of a driver who leads the way over the course of a season in the European championship then not appearing near the front in the one-weekend World championship, or vice versa, but Williams junior Hoogendoorn proved he was capable of winning both this year.

His sophomore year on OK-J karts was a big improvement on 2024, and started off in WSK SMS where the Dutchman starred particularly in the wet (winning by 9.5s in one race) and being the overall victor in two rounds. He was unbeaten in qualifying until the final round, in which he didn’t set a laptime and started from the back for all heats. That didn’t stop him from finishing in the top six of each one, climbing over 20 places every time, and fourth in the final made him champion.

In the European championship he again proved a cut above the rest in mixed and wet conditions, and he won races in every round. That consistent podium-taking form ended up comfortably delivering him the title.

Pole, four wins and two second places in the heats then superheat victory put Hoogendoorn on the front row of the World championship final, but he couldn’t maximise it and finished third after a prolonged battle for second as the leader ran away.

Like Baglin, Hoogendoorn went to America for a weekend and he made the USA SuperNationals podium in two junior classes.

Aaron Garcia SPAIN 17y/o
X30 Snr IAME Euro champion, IAME WF winner, 2nd in German championship, 29th in USA SuperNats   OK: 73rd in CIK Worlds, 102nd in CotF

Photo: IAME Euro Series

On X30 Senior karts, the driver who was most often the one to beat in 2025 was Garcia, and he was IAME Euro Series champion by over 40 points despite failing to score in the opening round. He didn’t lack pace, since he was fourth in his qualifying group and second in two heats.

In round two he spent plenty of time at the front, including in the final, scoring enough points en route to second overall to jump to third in the standings. It was roughly the same in round three, and while Garcia was beaten to overall honours by 0.847s he still climbed another spot in the points table.

Repeating that route to the final in round four, which he finished fifth in, was enough to make him champion.

While qualifying remained Garcia’s weakness, starting further back never proved to be an issue and in the IAME Warriors Final he qualified sixth but won four heats and the final.

Garcia also contested the German Karting Championship, which he was runner-up in, and cameoed in other locations.

Riley Cranham ENGLAND 14y/o
X30 Jr IAME Euro champion, British champion, Kartmasters British GP winner, 2nd in IAME WC

Photo: IAME Motorsport

Already racing cars through the Ginetta Junior Winter Series, Cranham made sure karting’s four-round IAME Euro Series was decided in three with dominant form that allowed him to skip the finale.

He took two wins and a second place in both the finals and superheats of rounds one to three, with only two races where he wasn’t on the podium.

In the British Kart Championship he raced with the coveted O plate and showed he was deserving of it by taking the title. He won the first two rounds, and was the top scorer from the heats at five of the nine events.

At the Kartmasters British Grand Prix, Cranham topped his group in the first round of qualifying, but a win and a non-finish put him 15th in the end-of-day classification. He topped qualifying again the next day, but fourth and 11th in the next two heats meant he had to climb up from 10th to finish fourth in the pre-final. Further progress was made in the final, as he won.

The year began with the IAME Winter Cup, which was almost another Cranham-claimed contest. He comfortably won two of his three heats, was victorious in his superheat then was the long-time leader in the final before falling to fourth late on. Penalties for others lifted him back to second.

Jacob Ashcroft ENGLAND 14y/o
Rotax Jr Euro Trophy champion, British champion, Ultimate Karting champion, Int. Trophy winner, BNL Series champion, 2nd in Grand Finals

Photo: RMC Euro Trophy

A title-winning margin of just 15 points (when eight drivers surpassed 500 points) belied how much of a winning machine Ashcroft was in the RMC Euro Trophy in 2025.

He topped his qualifying group in three of the four rounds, won nine out of 12 heats and made the podium in the final three times. After missing out on victory by 0.05s in round one, he had an unbeaten weekend in round three.

During summer Ashcroft won the RMC International Trophy. He was denied pole by 0.006s, then a non-finish alongside his two heat wins meant he started fourth for his superheat. He won that race, and the final.

On home soil the Rotax Junior titles in the British and Ultimate Karting championships went to Ashcroft, and in Belgium’s BNL Series he was also champion.

That success earned him a ticket to December’s RMC Grand Finals in Bahrain, and he was once again the driver to beat. He was fastest in qualifying, won two heats and came second in the other, was victorious in his pre-final and led the final before finishing second.

Alexander Vanchev BULGARIA/USA 15y/o
X30 Snr 13th in USA SuperNats   KA100 Snr Finalist in USA SuperNats   KA100 Jr USA Pro Tour champion, USA WS champion   X30 Jr USA Pro Tour champion, USA WS champion

There were two names who ruled America’s junior karting scene this year, and Alexander Vanchev was one of them.

He won the USA Pro Tour and Winter Series titles on KA100 and X30 karts, gathering a lot of attention as like Formula 2 star Nikola Tsolov he races under the Bulgarian flag.

In the winter series he won two finals out of four in each of the junior categories, and was unbeaten in the opening round for KA100 Junior. He took that title on victory countback after dropped scores were taken into account, and comfortably claimed the X30 Jr crown.

Although Vanchev never once qualified on pole in the Pro Tour, he was able to make his way to the front in the races. He won three KA100 finals, including round five where he qualified 21st then finished seventh in the pre-final. In the final round he went from 44th to 13th in the pre-final, and climbed another nine places in the final.

In X30 Jr he won the first three rounds, doing so from pole twice, and in round five he bounced back from being disqualified in qualifying to get up to eighth by the final.

For the end-of-year SuperNationals he also stepped up to senior karting. In the X30 Snr class he was runner-up in two of his heats en route to the final, which he finished 13th in. He also made the final in KA100 but retired, with a bad qualifying result putting him on the back foot through the event.

Kai Clarke ENGLAND
Rotax Jr 2nd in WS, 2nd in Euro Trophy, 2nd in Golden Trophy, 3rd in Int. Trophy, 4th in British championship, 10th in Kartmasters British GP, 16th in Ultimate Karting Championship, 28th in Grand Finals

Photo: KR Sport

Clarke doesn’t usually smile when on the podium, but he should be happy with what he achieved as one of KR Sport’s driver in 2025.

He was in the top four of five major competitions on Rotax Junior karts, and while his inclusion does make this list a little too heavy on British drivers, it’s worth noting he was a breakthrough talent on the international scene last year while every other name on the list was better known to this writer.

Clarke’s year started in the RMC Winter Series, where he failed to win a race (thanks to a penalty in round two’s final) but was so consistently near the front that he was runner-up in the standings. It was similar in the Euro Trophy, as Clarke never qualified higher than sixth, had penalties in the season’s first half but won the pre-finals in rounds three and four and his podium finishes in the finals propelled him to second in the points with a small deficit to the champion.

At the RMC Golden Trophy he won a heat but retired in the other, then won the final on-the-road before a penalty demoted him to second. On home soil he was less successful, but in a very busy year it was his racing abroad that marked him out.

Maxim Orlov RUSSIA 17y/o
KZ2 CotF champion, FIA World Cup winner, CIK European champion, 4th in WSK SMS, finalist in Trofeo delle Industrie

Talking to media after World Cup victory

Shifter karting tends to be where ‘career’ karters go, and drivers who do not head into single-seaters in their later teenaged years, and in the KZ2 class the biggest star of 2025 was Orlov.

He won the Italian championship in 2023, the WSK Final Cup in 2024, and then two of the biggest championships in Europe and the biggest race of all last year. At the end of it he did step up car racing, coming sixth in the SMP Formula 4 winter series.

The CotF season only featured two rounds for KZ2 drivers, and in the first Orlov topped his qualifying group, won one heat and came 0.084s short of a second after being penalised, was superheat runner-up then romped to victory in the final.

A lap one retirement in heat four of six prevented Orlov from having an unbeaten weekend in round two, with huge winning margins in the late races.

He was on top at the end of each weekend in the European championship too. Moving before the red lights went out copped him penalties that denied him unbeaten weekends in rounds one and two’s races, although in the latter’s final he was victorious by a huge 12s. A heat non-finish made the route to victory a little harder in round three, but he still got it done.

At the FIA World Cup, it was more of the same and this time Orlov did tick the ‘unbeaten’ box.

11 more to watch…

On OK karts, Zac Drummond was WSK Final Cup runner-up, third in the European championship and sixth in the World championship and WSK SMS.

In the OK-J paddock, William Calleja started very strongly but had some nightmare weekends which left him as European championship and CotF runner-up. He was also fifth in WSK’s Euro Series, while Valerio Viapiana was the World championship runner-up, fourth in WSK’s Euro Series, fifth in its Final Cup and ninth in the Super Master Series.

Ilie Cristan, now an Alpine junior, was third in CotF and WSK SMS in 2025, fourth in the European championship and WSK Final Cup, fifth in the World championship. The Canadian landed a lot of top-five results, but taking the fight to the biggest names in the finals was often another step up as the year went on.

MP Motorsport has signed Henry Domain for 2026, after he was WSK Euro Series runner-up, fourth in CotF, sixth in the European championship and WSK SMS last year.

In addition to beating Baglin to the WSK Final Cup title, Bosco Arias was fourth in WSK SMS and seventh in the European championship. Also part of the FIA’s karting pyramid is the Academy Trophy, and Yuzuki Sato won the Senior class.

OK-N karts is one of karting’s newest classes, and Italian driver Manuel Scognamiglio was the top talent. He was WSK Euro Series champion, Italian champion and Trofeo Andrea Margutti winner. For the WSK Final Cup he joined the OK grid and was ninth.

Vanchev’s big rival in the USA was Travis Pettit. He was Pro Tour runner-up, fourth in the SuperNats and fifth in the Winter Series in KA100 Jr, and was SuperNats runner-up, fourth in the IAME Grand Nationals and USA Pro Tour in X30 Jr.

The final two names come from the Rotax Snr scene. Macauley Bishop won the RMC Int. Trophy and Grand Finals, was BNL Series champion, RMC Golden Trophy runner-up, fifth in the Ultimate Karting Championship and sixth in the British Championship but was only 10th in the RMC Euro Trophy.

Tino Sidler did better there, coming sixth in the standings, and was third in the RMC Winter Series and BNL Series.

More from karting
Karting legend Mike Wilson passes away
FIA launches global karting shootout as Hitech partners with Tony Kart
FIA locks in regulations for introduction of electric karting at senior level
Korus created after Tatuus buys kart brands Birel ART and Kart Republic
CotF karting series launches F4 programme

The post The top karting stars of 2025 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: McLaren

McLaren has announced the addition of two Formula 2 stars and a top karter to its driver development programme.

Two days after their fates in F2’s title fight were settled, Leonardo Fornaroli and Richard Verschoor join McLaren’s junior ranks.

Fornaroli was crowned champion with a round remaining in the feature race at Losail, and Verschoor was in title contention until that point and now sits third in the standings.

Following that race, Fornaroli told media including Formula Scout that it would be two weeks before his future racing plans were announced, while the self-managed Verschoor said he already knew how we would spend 2026 too.

There have been four race victories so far for Fornaroli in his triumphant rookie F2 season, which comes after he was a win-free 2024 FIA Formula 3 champion as a sophomore. He was 11th in FIA F3’s 2023 standings, and eighth in the 2022 Formula Regional European Championship. In 2026, he will be a test and development driver for McLaren’s Formula 1 team.

“I’m incredibly proud to be joining the MDDP after another successful year on track,” said the 20-year-old Italian.

“Winning both the FIA F3 and F2 titles has been an important step in my journey, and I’m motivated to take the next step in my development through the programme as I work toward my ultimate goal of racing at the highest level. I’m very grateful to McLaren for this opportunity, and to everyone who has supported me throughout my career so far.”

Verschoor has also won four races in 2025 but is a fifth-year driver in F2. He had won once in each of his previous seasons, and never come higher than eighth in the standings despite three 100-plus point campaigns.

In F3 he won the Macau Grand Prix, but only had two podiums across two-and-a-half GP3/FIA F3 Championship seasons.

“It’s a special moment [to join the MDDP], and I’m grateful for McLaren’s support in allowing me to continue my development within the programme,” said the 24-year-old Dutchman.

The MDDP’s third signing is Christian Costoya, the 2025 CIK-FIA European Karting and WSK Euro Series champion, and WSK Super Master Series runner-up on OK karts.

He was European championship runner-up at the junior level, and has recently done Formula 4 tests with Prema. Next month he makes his single-seater racing debut in F4 United Arab Emirates.

“I’m very excited to join the MDDP and become part of their talent pipeline,” the 15-year-old Spaniard said. “It is great to get the team’s support and be in an environment that is known for developing great drivers.”

Alessandro Alunni Bravi, head of the MDDP since this January, added “all three talented drivers have shown great racecraft with multiple wins this season, alongside a number of impressive performances in their respective championships” and they will be supported “to provide options for all of our expanding racing teams” in F1, IndyCar and the World Endurance Championship. That means “a wide range of testing and progression opportunities” with those squads.

The post McLaren signs F2 champion Fornaroli and rival Verschoor as juniors appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: KSP Reportages

Nicolas Todt’s protege Christian Costoya surged into the CIK-FIA European Karting Championship lead in round two at Algarve.

It was a superb event in the OK class for the factory Parolin driver, starting off by topping qualifying (with Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior James Anagnostiadis and Noah Wolfe leading the other groups) then winning three of his four heats.

Mercedes junior Kenzo Craigie, Zac Drummond and Wolfe all won two heats, but it was Kart Republic’s veteran Joe Turney who was closest to Costoya in the intermediate classification and Energy Corse’s Lev Krutoholov split Craigie and Drummond in fourth despite no heat victories.

Drummond passed Costoya then sprinted away to win a wet first superheat by a huge 7.839 seconds, with Beau Lowette right behind team-mate Costoya in third.

The track was drying for superheat B, and Krutoholov won in style. He passed Turney on lap one then left him for dust, and by lap five Wolfe had cleared Turney too but had no answer for Krutoholov. Lewis Wherrell finished third from 28th on the grid.

These results put Costoya and Krutoholov on the front row for the final, and the former led lights-to-flag. Krutoholov dropped down the order on lap one, and after Wolfe passed Drummond for second he pressured Costoya in the race’s first half before he began to edge away.

Daniel Kelleher beat Roman Kamyab and Thibaut Ramaekers in a photo finish for fourth, with Kamyab climbing 11 spots. Turney spun out.

Round one star Chiara Battig finished a penalised 24th, and her points-free weekend dropped her from fourth to ninth in the standings. Her best race result was fifth in a heat.

In the OK Junior class, the qualifying groups were each decided by less than 0.045s with Ferrari Driver Academy member Noah Baglin, Alpine Academy member Ilie Tristan Crisan and Dan Allemann topping the times.

Baglin converted pole into three heat wins, and Luka Scelles won three races too. Two victories was enough for Iskender Zulfikari to top the intermediate classification, and Williams F1 juniors Will Green and Dean Hoogendoorn were two-time heat winners too.

In superheat A, Arata Endo and Crisan leapt past Zulfikari straight away, with the poleman then swiftly ejected from proceedings. William Calleja ended up as the winner, after Endo was penalised for overtaking Zulfikari before racing had officially begun.

Green and Baglin fought through superheat B and finished one-two, with Scelles just behind before a bumper penalty handed Allemann third.

Scelles climbed from seventh to first on lap one of the dry final, moving to the front when the top four ran into each other, but on lap six fell to fourth and lost further places to finish eighth. Hoogendoorn took the lead from him and held it to the finish, with points leader Baglin second.

Green was demoted to sixth at first, recovered two places then retired on the last lap with Endo – who had briefly got ahead of Baglin – as contact was made with Crisan when he passed both.

Results round-up
OK final (20 laps)
1 Christian Costoya Parolin 19m05.654s
2 Noah Wolfe VAR by Birel +1.464s
3 Zac Drummond Fusion Motorsport +7.086s
4 Daniel Kelleher Kart Republic +8.443s
5 Roman Kamyab Ricky Flynn Motorsport +8.544s
6 Thibaut Ramaekers VDK Racing +8.661s
7 Dries Van Langendonck Prema +8.875s
8 Jensen Burnett Forza Racing +9.311s
9 James Anagnostiadis Prema +10.109s
10 Viktor Gustafsson GE.LU.MI.NI +12.021s
Fastest lap: Kamyab, 56.430s

Championship standings
1 Costoya 144   2 Anagnostiadis 121   3 Ramaekers 115   4 Drummond 102   5 Van Langendonck 100   6 Kelleher 84   7 Burnett 66   8 Wolfe 65   9 Chiara Battig 64   10 Thomas Pradier 46

OK-J final (17 laps)
1 Dean Hoogendoorn Prema 16m57.558s
2 Noah Baglin Prema +2.971s
3 Ilie Tristan Crisan Tony Kart +4.318s
4 Henry Domain Forza Racing +4.915s
5 Drew Walz Kart Republic +6.869s
6 Dan Allemann Ward Racing +7.246s
7 Antonio Pizzonia Neto Fusion Motorsport +11.754s
8 Luka Scelles Victory Lane +12.548s
9 Michael McGaughy Koski Motorsport +13.459s
10 Remigiusz Samczyk Fusion Motorsport +18.580s
FL: Will Green, 58.504s

Championship standings
1 Baglin 168   2 Hoogendoorn 149   3 William Calleja 111   4 Domain 102   5 Iskender Zulfikari 84   6 Crisan 81   7 Bosco Arias 75   8 Scelles 68   9 Allemann 67   10 Green 61

The post Todt protege Costoya surges into European Karting Champship lead appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: KSP Reportages

Karting is the training ground of most drivers before single-seaters, and it’s always useful to check what’s happening in the major championships to see which future talents may eventually burst onto the scene

Formula Scout expanded its karting coverage in 2022, and got to report on stories of drama, disaster and redemption. That continued into this year, and there were once again moments that left spectators in disbelief or holding their breath.

Unfortunately, like last year, it was bad news that made for the biggest story of the year. In the final of the CIK-FIA World championship for OK karts, Joe Turney – one of the highest performers through 2023 until that point – had a crash and as he was trying to get his kart going again he was struck by another going by. The outcome for Turney’s ankle was not nice to see.

The race was later red flagged and restarted from the lap Turney’s accident took place on, and Kirill Kutskov went on to win. In other major competitions there were also drama-filled finals, and occasions where one team in particular had the edge.

Several of the year’s top talents had already headed into single-seaters before the end of the year, most noticably Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior Alex Powell who moved up to Formula 4 with the Prema team he was already driving for in karting.

Here are the names that stood out to Formula Scout the most in international karting during 2023:

Key

WSK: Champions Cup (CC), Euro Series (Euro), Final Cup (FC), Open Series (OS), Super Master Series (SMS), Super Cup (SC)
CIK-FIA: European championship (CIK European), World championship (CIK Worlds), World Cup (FIA WC), Karting Academy Trophy (FIA Academy Trophy)
Rotax Max Challenge: Euro Trophy (Euro), International Trophy (Int. Trophy), Grand Finals
IAME: Euro Series (Euro), Warriors Final (WF)
Champions of the Future (CotF)

Rene Lammers THE NETHERLANDS 15y/o
OK CIK European champion, 2nd in CIK Worlds, 3rd in WSK SMS, 11th in CotF, 15th in WSK Euro

Photo: Sebastiaan Rozendaal / DPPA

The son of former Formula 1 racer Jan will race for MP Motorsport in F4 next year, and won the Ferrari Driver Academy’s Scouting World Finals but did not receive the prize of becoming a Ferrari junior.

He did at least get to collect his trophies at the FIA’s prize-giving ceremony for his karting accomplishments, which were winning the European championship and coming second in the world championship for OK karts.

Lammers finished third in the final of round one of the European championship, and moved one place higher on the podium in round two but was actually far further away from the winner. At that point he was 14 points off the top of the table, despite a weekend in which he had topped his qualifying group, won four heats and finished second in the other and then won his superheat.

He became points leader after the superheats in round three, which was his least convincing as he finished fourth in the two heats he did not win and was beaten to victory in his superheat. But he made up for it by winning the final.

That put him in an even stronger position for the season finale at Cremona, where he topped his qualifying group, won four heats, finished second in the other, then convincingly won his superheat to become champion and put himself on pole for the final. In that race he kept out of trouble to finish fourth.

A slightly conservative approach in the last laps of the final of the World championship (which is a single event) meant Lammers finished second rather than try to go for first and risk a silverware-losing mistake. It was a shame as those who managed to win the two biggest competitions in karting etch their name into history.

In WSK’s Super Master Series he came third but was 109 points off the champion. Over four rounds he got two poles but only won two heats, did win a pre-final and come second in another, but finished second, fifth, 11th and 15th in the four finals.

Dries Van Langendonck BELGIUM 13y/o
OK-J CIK World champion, WSK FC champion, 2nd in CotF, 5th in CIK European, 5th in WSK SMS, 9th in WSK CC, 9th in Trofeo delle Industrie, 14th in WSK Euro

Photo: sport-in-photo

Van Langendonck won the biggest race in junior karting, and was runner-up in what is becoming its biggest series on second place countback.

Driving for Forza Racing meant he was with the team to beat in the Champions of the Future series, while the factory squads put maximum effort into the world championship but got beaten by the young Belgian in a customer team.

And it’s important to note that because Van Langendonck started the year with Energy Corse, and it was only once he moved to Forza did he hit winning form. In CotF’s opening round he was fifth in his qualifying group, got one heat podium and was ninth in the final. He turned up to round two in a different team awning, and the impact was immediate as he topped qualifying, won all five heats and although he retired from his superheat he climbed eight places to finish fourth in the final.

Van Langendonck bounced back down to earth in round three, with fifth place in his qualifying group limiting him to one heat podium and in the final he was a penalised 12th. But the pace was there, as proven in round four as he topped qualifying again, won three heats and the final to sit firmly in title contention.

Even more heats were packed into the final round and Van Langendonck won two of them, came second in his superheat and completed a Forza one-two not only in the final but also in the standings.

The way he claimed the WSK Final Cup title showed what could have been in CotF had he done all rounds with Forza, and it was the same story in the European championship as he was turned into a title threat after changing teams.

Christian Costoya SPAIN 13y/o
OK-J 2nd in CIK Worlds, 3rd in WSK SMS, 3rd in WSK FC, 6th in CIK European, 6th in WSK Euro, 7th in CotF

Photo: KSP Reportages

The factory Parolin driver and Nicolas Todt protege was arguably the best driver in mini karting last year before stepping up to OK Junior karts in October. He came third in the WSK FC, and that set high expectations for 2023.

Costoya met them in almost every competition he was in, despite setbacks. His year started in WSK SMS, and he topped the first qualifying session of the season then won his first heat too. He won another and would have had two second places if not for a penalty, was third in the pre-final and fourth in the final.

In round two he was rapid again, winning a heat and coming second in the pre-final but getting disqualified from the final for pushing a rival off. He dropped to seventh in the standings during round three as he was once again rapid but got into trouble, and lessons were learned in time for round four where he won three heats and came eight in the final to rise up to third in the points table.

Costoya was consistent, and always picked up points in the preliminary races which made up for bad finishing positions in finals in various series. He was fourth in two European championship rounds, second in a WSK FC round and most importantly second in the world championship.

That weekend he was the driver to beat in qualifying, won four heats, came second in his superheat but once he was passed by Van Langendonck on lap one of the final his hopes of title glory were over. Second place was impressive all the same.

Cristian Bertuca ITALY 17y/o
KZ2 WSK SMS champion, WSK CC winner, Trofeo Andrea Margutti winner, 2nd in Italian, 3rd in WSK FC, 3rd in Trofeo delle Industrie, 4th in CIK European, 11th in South Garda Winter Cup, 15th in WSK OS, 35th in FIA WC

Photo: sport-in-photo

There was lots of winning by Bertuca on KZ2 karts this year, having stepped up to shifter karting midway through 2022.

But the glaring omission from his trophy cabinet was the World Cup, where he was fourth fastest in his qualifying group, only made the podium in one heat out of seven (with a penalty denying him another) and completed only five laps in total across his superheat and the final. A disaster of a weekend belying a super successful year.

His biggest triumph was the WSK SMS title, achieved with six heat wins, one pre-final win and a run of a first, a second and two thirds in the four finals. However he never topped qualifying.

The WSK Champions Cup and Andrea Margutti Trophy were single-weekend events he also won, he was runner-up in the Italian championship too (which runs over multiple rounds for KZ2 karts but is a single event for OK and OK-J drivers) and also won in a German championship cameo but wasn’t entered for points.

He was comfortably on course to win the WSK FC title until lap four of the final race, when he tumbled down the order from fourth place. Three laps later he retired, meaning no points and dropping to third in the standings.

Alex Powell JAMAICA 16y/o
OK CotF champion, 3rd in CIK European, 9th in WSK Euro, 28th in CIK Worlds   KZ2 2nd in CIK Worlds, 5th in CIK European, 8th in WSK OS, 24th in South Garda Winter Cup, 47th in WSK SMS

Photo: KSP Reportages

Powell starred in two karting classes and also single-seaters this year, fully reinforcing why he became an F1 junior aged 11.

Rather than start on OK karts then switch to KZ2s, Powell combined both from the off because later in the year he would need to be doing learning again with his move into F4. His consistently strong performances (after a disappointing two WSK SMS rounds to start the year) showed he had little trouble switching between the two every few weeks.

In the opening CotF round he topped his qualifying group, won three heats and led much of the final. However once he was passed by Turney for first place he didn’t have the pace to stay with the new leader. During round two he was on the podium in every race until the final where he set the fastest lap but finished eighth after spending the first eight laps in 29th place.

He took the points lead in round three by winning four heats, his superheat and coming second in the final. This time he lost the lead to Gabriel Gomez after they almost hit each, and also got passed by Turney but fought back to second place.

Powell found it harder to get on the podium in round four and retired on lap one of the final, but he still led the points and he secured the title in the final race of the season after losing out to Turney in yet another lead fight.

In the European championship, Powell had a shot to take titles in two categories. It quickly became a title fight between Lammers and Gomez on OK karts, with Powell looking on course for third place just as fast. And it did play out like that, with five heat wins, a superheat win and top-five finishes in every final leaving him some distance clear of everyone else bar the top two. He qualified badly in the last round, hampering his race results, but it didn’t impact his championship position.

The opening KZ2 round was Powell’s fourth weekend in shifter karting, and his most impressive. A bumper penalty did leave him 11th in his first heat, but he topped qualifying and won his next three heats and won the final from fifth on the grid.

It was crucial to get it right again in the title-deciding round two, but that’s not what happened. Powell’s three podiums were accompanied by two retirements in the heats, then a lap two incident dropped him to last place in the final. He scored just four points all weekend, being outscored by 15 rivals, and came fifth in the standings.

He still had the opportunity to be crowned best in the world in both categories, with KZ2’s world cup followed by the world championship for OK karts. In the former he starred, going unbeaten in qualifying, winning six heats, coming third in his superheat and second in the final. He spent every lap in that position, but only two of them within 0.3s of the winner Niels Troger. In the latter contest he won a heat but was eliminated by contact in another and in the final while in third place.

Lewis Wherrell ENGLAND 13y/o
OK-J CotF champion, WCK CC winner, Trofeo delle Industrie winner, 4th in CIK European, 6th in WSK FC, 8th in WSK Euro, 9th in WSK SMS, 35th in CIK Worlds

Photo: Sport-in-photo

The other half of Forza’s CotF domination, Wherrell grew in confidence each time he won a race and he showed he could bounce back from bad results.

In the opening round he won his superheat and came third in the final, then in round won three heats (with a fourth denied by a penalty) and led the first five laps of the final before spinning out. But he moved into the championship lead since nearest rival Thibaut Ramaekers didn’t score in the final either.

There were some setbacks in round three two but he responded each time. Two heat wins sandwiched a retirement, and finishing second in his superheat put him fifth on the final grid. He made it to the front and pulled away once in the lead.

That victorious comeback was followed by a disastrous round four where he only got one heat podium and came ninth in the final, yet still led the standings. Once again he bounced back, topping qualifying, winning five heats, only losing out to Ramaekers by 0.055s in his superheat and then in the final taking a lights-to-flag win in a Forza one-two to become champion by a huge 51 points.

He bookended the year by winning the WSK CC and Trofeo delle Industrie, while in the CIK-FIA competitions he also had an up-and-down time. Third place in the European championship looked to be his after five heat wins, a superheat win and second place in a final over the first three rounds, but he lost wins to penalties more than once and in the final round he retired from second in his superheat following a clash then had another in the final that got him disqualified.

Thibaut Ramaekers BELGIUM 14y/o
OK 3rd in WSK FC   OK-J 2nd in CIK European, 3rd in CotF, 6th in WSK SMS, 15th in WK Euro, 36th in CIK Worlds   X30 Jr IAME Winter Cup winner, 7th in IAME Euro

Photo: Champions of the Future

Ramaekers raced three different types of karts this year at two different levels, and was a frontrunner on all of them. While he did bring home lost of impressive results, even more went amiss.

He kicked things off in February by winning the IAME Winter Cup for X30 Junior karts, then in March won CotF and European championship rounds on OK-J machinery. WSK SMS was the next series to conquer for a weekend in April, but then the results did not show his pace over the next two CotF and CIK rounds, with each series racing at Trinec and Rodby.

On first trip to the Czech Republic for CotF he didn’t even complete one lap of the final and had been 12th in his superheat, but before that had been on the podium in every heat. In the return trip for the European championship he did get a better final result, finishing fourth, and also banked points by again finishing every heat on the podium.

Then to Denmark, and Ramaekers finished 18th in the CotF final in a points-free round. He had won two heats, but been hit out of one and disqualified from another, and finished a penalised 10th rather than third in his superheat. He sat fourth in the standings, one spot behind Stepan Antonov who had missed an entire round.

Attempt two at Rodby in the European championship also resulted in 18th, but left him second in the standings having claimed four heat podiums and third in his superheat.

Ramaekers delivered in the key races again after that, with two trips to Cremona resulting in fourth in the CotF round and victory in the European finale to make him championship runner-up. He only needed 11 more points to be champion…

Next up was a return to X30 Jr for the IAME Euro Series finale, and finishing second in that lifted him from 12th to seventh in the standings. Fifth in the final CotF round brought him back up to third in the points table, and then came the world championship. His bad luck in finals returned, as he and Wherrell were hit out after just three corners.

Macauley Bishop ENGLAND
Rotax Snr 3rd in Grand Finals, 8th in Int. Trophy, 34th in Euro   X30 Senior 9th in IAME WF   Rotax Jr British champion, British GP winner   X30 Jr British champion

Photo: Motorsport UK

Bishop was brilliant in Britain, winning the junior championships for Rotax and X30 karts. He also won the Kartmasters British Grand Prix in the former, but a sterner test of his abilities came when he took his talents abroad.

His first overseas trip was Rotax Max Challenge’s International Trophy at Le Mans, and he chose to step up to the senior class. He was 21st in his qualifying group, yet finished fifth in his first heat. That was followed by 30th, a penalised 27th (after rising to 10th), fourth and 13th places. Combined it put him 14th on the superheat grid but he rose to sixth with fastest lap. More climbing was to come, since he had scraped into the final. From 34th on the grid he finished eighth. A big weekend of learning.

Bishop then did the RMC Euro Trophy’s British round at PFI International. He was second in qualifying, came first, second and first in the heats, then was second in the pre-final. But in the final he sank to 11th on lap one.

In a cameo on X30 Senior karts he came ninth in the IAME Warriors Final, then in the RMC Grand Finals in Bahrain won in the heats, pre-finals and was third in the final (after the on-the-road top three were penalised).

As for his domestic success, the X30 Jr season was closely contested and the top two in the championship were disqualified from the season finale. That locked in Bishop’s winning margin of 26 points, a small gap given the top five all scored more than 700. He won the final in three of the five rounds, and more tellingly took the maximum points haul seven out of a possible 15 times (with the combined heat results awarding the same number of points as the pre-final and the final). Bishop was driving one of the Lando Norris-branded kart chassis, and the next best LN driver was 18th in the standings.

In the Rotax Junior season he built more of a gap at the top of the table, scoring the maximum haul of 65 points 11 times out of 15 but again winning three of the five finals. The grand prix began with a big crash, and on lap two Ethan Jeff-Hall and Bishop traded the lead four times. Joshua Graham then took second, and the top two fled. Bishop won by 0.54s.

Daniel Vasile ROMANIA 23y/o
KZ2 2nd in CIK European, 2nd in German, 2nd in Trofeo delle Industrie, 2nd in Trofeo Andrea Margutti, 3rd in FIA WC, 6th in Italian, 10th in WSK SMS, 16th in WSK OS, 31st in WSK FC

Photo: KSP Reportages

This may seem like an unfair inclusion since Vasile has been a KZ2 regular since 2017, but he had a big breakout year.

Third in the 2017 WSK FC and winning the 2018 WSK CC were his last big results prior to 2023, which began with a WSK SMS campaign. He topped qualifying for round one, finished two heats in third, was second in the pre-final and then fifth in the final, but it was downhill thereon. In rounds two to four he was always outside of the top 10 in qualifying, a third place was his only top-six heat result, he was sixth in two pre-finals and 10th was his best final result. The end outcome: 10th in the standings.

But elsewhere he brought home the results. He was Andrea Margutti Trophy runner-up, in the European championship opener made the podium in every heat, won the superheat and was sixth in the final, then in the first round of the German championship finished first and third in the weekend’s two finals.

Vasile became European championship runner-up in its second round, despite only qualifying sixth and finishing no higher than third in his heats, as he took second place in the superheat in a photo finish then was second in the final too. He also delivered when it mattered in the world cup. After making the podium in six heats (including two wins), he went from sixth to third on the opening lap of the final then held his position.

The German season ended in Italy and Vasile won both heats then finished first and second in the two finals to win the fight to be vice-champion. Despite missing two of the Italian championship’s five rounds, Vasile was still able to come sixth in that as he was consistently contending for podiums in the finals.

Iskender Zulfikari TURKEY 11y/o
ROK Jr Supercup winner   OK-J 28th in WSK FC   OK-NJ 5th in WSK Euro, 28th in Road to the WC, 36th in Italian   Mini WSK SMS champion, WSK CC winner, South Garda Winter Cup winner, WSK SC winner, 3rd in Trofeo Andrea Margutti, 6th in Italian, 10th in WSK OS

Photo: ROK Supercup

Not only the most successful driver of the year in mini karting, but now a proven prospect at the next level too.

Zulfikari won the South Garda Winter Cup in his first race event of 2023, a week later won the WSK CC then the week after that smashed the opening WSK SMS round out of the park by taking pole, winning three heats, his pre-final and the final.

He got a week off before the next round, where he won two heats, was denied pre-final victory by 0.115s and led the final until he retired on the last lap and dropped to third in the standings. In round three he climbed a spot despite not winning, but his combined losing margin in the three heats came to 1.311s, he lost the pre-final by just 0.028s and the final by 0.104s.

The final round was similar at first, Zulfikari being just 0.004s away from winning a heat, but he won the pre-final and second in the final delivered him the title. Before that event was the Andrea Margutti Trophy, which he finished third in, then June’s WSK Super Cup – which is only contested by mini karts – was won by the Turk. Like Vasile he also came sixth in the Italian championship despite missing two rounds. In the three he contested he took two poles, two heat wins, won a final and in round two climbed 12 places to finish third in one final then was second in the next.

In September he stepped up to junior karting, coming fifth in the WSK Euro Series for OK-N Junior karts and winning the ROK Supercup on his ROK Junior debut.

Ten more to watch…

It could be argued that many of the names here should have appeared in the main list of 10, and vice versa, since they were high achievers in some international competitions but also got outperformed in others.

Kirill Kutskov became world champion and won the WSK Euro Series in a top three lockout for drivers racing as neutrals (as all three were Russians), but finished no higher than 12th in any other series.

Photos: KSP Reportages

Alpine junior Kean Nakamura Berta finished two places behind him in the biggest race of the year, was fifth in the European championship after a disastrous opening round but was CotF runner-up. Like team-mate Powell, who beat him to that title, he was also busy on KZ2 karts and was sixth in both the world cup and European championship.

Tomass Stolcermannis was also a Prema driver this year, but only for his F4 debut as the Latvian was a factory Energy Corse driver on OK and KZ2 karts. In the former he came fourth in the European championship and WSK Euro Series, and in the latter was third in the European championship and seventh in the world cup.

Like the two above, Sasha Bondarev had high expectations on him after a breakout 2022 and he delivered in part. He was European champion, fifth in CotF and eighth in WSK SMS on OK-J karts, then after being signed as a Williams F1 junior he stepped up to OK karts and came seventh in the WSK FC.

The new OK-N class grew in stature through this year, and Antonio Apicella was one of the stars in its events as he was WSK Euro Series runner-up and won the ‘Road to the 1st World Cup’ event. In X30 Snr he was also sixth in the WSK CC.

Dean Hoogendoorn was Zulfikari’s big rival in mini karting, losing the WSK SMS points lead to him in the season’s penultimate race, coming third in the South Garda Winter Cup and WSK Open Series and fifth in the Andrea Margutti Trophy.

He got some redemption on OK-NJ machinery by winning the WSK Euro Series title and being ‘Road to the World Cup’ runner-up, and on X30 Jr karts he was fourth in Trofeo delle Industrie.

Filippo Sala was a consistent OK-J star, ending 2023 as WSK SMS runner-up, making the Trofeo delle Industrie podium, being fourth in the South Garda Winter Cup and WSK FC, and fifth in WSK’s Champions Cup and Euro Series.

Although he didn’t match his 2022 accomplishments, Sean Butcher still came second in the RMC Euro Trophy and BNL Series, was seventh in the Grand Finals and was third in the British championship for Rotax Senior karts.

Riccardo Ferrari won the WSK CC and Andrea Margutti Trophy as an X30 Jr karter, then won the Trofeo delle Industrie when he stepped up to X30 Snr. Similarly, Ernesto Rivera won the Florida Winter Tour (in a ROK Jr kart) and the USA’s national summer and winter X30 Jr championships then won the end-of-year SuperNationals in KA100 Senior.

More from karting
2023 International karting winners list
F1 Academy announces Champions of the Future kart series tie-up
Alba Hurup Larsen wins 2023 FIA Girls on Track Rising Stars senior final

The post The top karting stars of 2023 appeared first on Formula Scout.