Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s goal for karting : “Standardize requirements and reduce costs”
Karting gives young people their first taste of motor sport. However, this discipline is very expensive, and many families can't afford to send their children to this category. For FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem, costs need to be cut.
It’s in this category that everything begins. It’s through karting that future professional car drivers, regardless of the category, learn the basics of driving with accelerations, braking, mechanical behaviors…
However, this entry into motor sports is very expensive. While some drivers can rely on family fortune in the likeness of Lance Stroll, Nikita Mazepin or Nicholas Latifi, to afford the best possible equipment, others must make sacrifices.
We want to standardize the requirements and reduce costs
Esteban Ocon declared on Canal+ in 2021 that his family did not go on holiday to save all the money they had to drive in karting. The tricolor was able to count on the support of Gravity Sport Management (GSM), a structure for young drivers, supervised by Gwen Lagrue and Éric Boulier. « You have to pay for all these new tires, all this equipment. It’s something we would not have been able to finance (without GSM ed) », explained the Alpine driver.
Without this money, many young people see their dreams of professional motor sports fade. A situation denounced by Mohammed Ben Sulayem, president of the FIA. The Emirati wants to lower costs in this category.
« Who can afford to pay 275,000 euros per season for their ten-year-old child? It’s not possible. Karting is so expensive. That’s why we want to standardize the requirements and reduce the costs. After all, we want to see motor racing develop. All Formula 1, Formula 2 and Formula 3 drivers come from karting. And that’s where it must begin », declares Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
