New Rules for 2011 World Championship

The 2011 CIK-FIA Karting World Championship will adopt new technical regulations and a new format.

The Super KF category introduced in 2009 has been dropped (in fact, this year's World Championship was run to KF2 spec anyway, due to unsufficient interest in Super KF) and the winner will be decided over a series of five events, not a one-off meeting.

Above: Nyck de Vries will be back to defend his World Karting Championship

Negotiations between the CIK-FIA and a panel of major manufacturers has created a new version of KF1 that will see open chassis & tyres with KF2-type engines.

“This technical definition has several important advantages” explained Shaikh Abdulla bin Isa Al Khalifa, President of the CIK-FIA.

“The experience of the 2010 World Championship speaks for itself: uncertain in Super KF, the field considerably got thicker when it was announced that the event would be held for KF2s. The engines of the latter karts are more accessible, less costly and much more widespread as they are also used in the ASNs’ national Championships.

"The solution retained with this redefinition of KF1 suits the largest number of parties involved: chassis and tyre Manufacturers, who still have a good room for manœuvre to develop their products, engine tuners, who are still in with a say in the matter, and private drivers, who still stand a good chance of winning even against works drivers.”

Along with the revised rules, the CIK-FIA will reintroduce a World Championship held over several events. The European Championship and World Cup in Japan will now be part of this World Championship. The programme for 2011 comprises:

• Japan (Suzuka, 22 May)
• Germany (Wackersdorf, 12 June)
• Spain (Zuera, 24 July)
• Belgium (Genk, 4 September)
• Italy (Sarno, 18 September).

In its 47 years of history, the Karting World Championship has run as a series of events only 6 times - 1966 to 1969, as well as in 2001 and 2002.

“The idea is to reinforce further the impact and value of the World Champion title”, Shaikh Abdulla continued.

“Each event will be composed of 4 races with points allocated, and the Driver who eventually wins it is bound to have had a strong season. The Championship will also be reserved for a maximum of 34 Drivers. Only the Japanese event will benefit from ‘‘wild cards’’, aimed at encouraging Asian participation.”

Revealed by the World Council on 3rd November, the new technical & sporting format of the World Championship has immediately aroused the interest of the most ambitious Manufacturers, Teams and Drivers.

The reigning World Champion, Nyck de Vries, will be present. “I am very much interested by the dimension of this Championship”, commented the Dutch Driver, “and it will even further enhance the Drivers’ sporting achievements. I fully support it. Although I won in 2010, the idea of landing another edition of the most official and renowned Karting Championship is a huge motivation for me, especially in this new context! In 2011 I shall remain completely focussed on Karting and have every intention of enriching my experience before switching to automobiles.”

With the participation of the major manufacturers, the interest shown by semi-official or private teams and the fact that the most competitive KF2, KF3 and U18 drivers in 2010 confess that they have an interest for this Championship, there should definitely not be a lack of applicants for the 34 available places!

Entries open from 20 January 2011.

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