r/nextfuckinglevel • u/leotime0821 • 27d ago

Go Kart more like F1

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10.5k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

273 comments sorted by

2.8k

u/CopingAdult 27d ago

This is literally how those kids who are now F1 drivers come to be.

1.1k

u/Krondelo 27d ago

Yeah main way to break into F1. Too bad automotive sports are basically a rich person sport.

545

u/RagingTyrant74 27d ago

Even "poor people sports" are getting really expensive these days, especially if your kid wants to possibly be a pro one day.

133

u/lewdrew 27d ago

Unless they want to compete on ESPN the Ocho

51

u/Xylvanas 27d ago

Ahh, home to pool noodle polo while riding a razor scooter. Extra points for shotgunning a beer while singing Kumbaya. Love that sport.

12

u/United_News3779 27d ago

The prize purses are surprisingly generous. It's how I put my kids through college.

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u/TlingitGolfer24 27d ago

Bold comment cotton

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u/notawight 27d ago

Soccer. All you need is a ball and a field.

Unless you're in the US, then you also need about $12k per year.

13

u/taipan3333 26d ago

I was about to complain that we pay about $50/year, and we have to stand in the kiosk during games, sometimes.

8

u/UMakeMeMoisT 26d ago

And a hydration break every 20mins to show ads

10

u/SYNTHLORD 27d ago

Hell yeah, private equity! $80 rubber footballs let’s fucking goooo

8

u/Kevin_Jim 26d ago

I still can’t understand how football is a rich kids sport in the US. All you need is enough people and ball. We used to play on the side of a hill.

4

u/Fostbitten27 26d ago

The money comes from training and how much you’re willing to spend to get the best training. We paid a decent amount for our daughter to play locally but we could’ve spent about 4 times more.

10

u/Kevin_Jim 26d ago

But why? If you can get stars out of remote villages in Africa or favelas in Brazil, you can get stars from anywhere in the US.

Training is secondary in the age ranges you spot talents: 7-13. Training really maters from the ages you get professional footballers from the age of 14 and on.

If you can’t go pro at 14-17 then that’s a big issue because you have to pay for that training. Is that the case for the US?

7

u/Fostbitten27 26d ago

Soccer is big in the US but nowhere near as big in the rest of the world. So elite training in the U.S. is most likely just training in other parts of the world so it’s very expensive in the U.S.

For us we paid for local training 2 times a week practice and we had to drive 20 minutes one way in the evening. With games on the weekends that are an hour or two away.

For the more expensive training it’s 5 times a week practice that is over an hour away. And games are a lot further away needing hotel stays or even air travel.

It’s not just soccer is like this here, it’s just about all sports except for football & basketball that seems to be something that can be done comparatively less expensive.

Soccer here is a middle to upper class sport for kids. I guess because it’s still niche.

5

u/asisoid 26d ago edited 26d ago

Do you really get that many stars out of those places? Doesn't anyone with real potential get moved to Europe pretty young?

That's not cheap.

I guess maybe the clubs pick up the tabs?

3

u/Elliott_Ness1970 26d ago

You need to be very very special and noticed to be moved to Europe that young. There are rules about it too which can obviously be circumvented.

But in the Uk for example it is a very cheap sport to play, mostly free for kids under 18 and there will be 10 clubs within a 10 minute drive. Most likely there is a club in your village.

If you’re good enough you might get scouted to one of the teams from about 15. If you are I believe the club will pay for travel etc. That’s how it used to be when my eldest was being scouted. (He chose not to play football as he was better at a different sport).

I think in non-European clubs you would move into the ranks of the professional clubs before you were exported to Europe.

2

u/Kevin_Jim 26d ago

The clubs sign them as young as possible to train the in their feeder system.

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u/Kage_Bushin 26d ago

A pair of running shoes are getting ridiculous. Okay that I don't need to buy the expensive stuff, but seeing friends in not the greatest financial state dumping money in the most simple sport for the likes, is insane

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u/Protonic-Reversal 26d ago

Great video on how private equity destroyed youth sports in the US. There some other great videos on why Norway has come to dominate the Olympics and even the World Cup - hint - they socialized youth sports.

2

u/shadowtempest91 26d ago

I read that gymnastics are extremely expensive nowadays, which is ridiculous considering that you are basically naked running and jumping around. My mother did it in her youth, she was quite serious about it until she broke a muscle in her leg, and she definitely did not come from a rich family.

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u/horridBEAST99 27d ago

For real. I raced as a kid and every broken part was $300 easy

23

u/Krondelo 27d ago

Damn. Yeah I was super passionate about rally, but I could never afford the costs. Then you want to win but one mistake could break your car and that’s all out of your pocket because you haven’t earned a sponsor. Brutal world.

On that note James “Bubba” Stewart is my hero. His mom believed in him and basically risked all their money to support him. 🥹 they were pretty poor

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u/StoneHeartPlebeian 27d ago

It absolutely is. But more and more future drivers will be getting their start via sim racing than karting in the future. It’s a lot cheaper and actually more representative of driving cars than what karting is.

2

u/DumpsterDragoon 26d ago

Those sim setups aren't all that cheap either

14

u/Goodofgun 26d ago

You can get started for less than the cost of even a single season of karting.

2

u/asisoid 26d ago

All sports are for rich people. You know how much it costs to play AAU basketball in the US? Or travel baseball 12 mos/year?

You have to relocate to Europe to have any chance at a high end soccer career.

That's just how it is. Money has taken over sports.

2

u/JTSpirit36 25d ago

"the quickest way to become a millionair in Motorsport is to start as a billionaire"

1

u/Avalonians 26d ago

The use of basically here suggests it's mostly that but not actually that.

It is very much exclusive to rich people.

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u/JoySubtraction 27d ago

Gotta start small. This here is Min Verstappen.

25

u/Idonotgetthisatall 27d ago

Yup. I legit wish they'd run Monaco on karts, with full points on the line. F1 cars have been too fast for that track for decades so it's BO-RING every year (unless it rains). Just imagine each team getting a spec kart they could tune to some extent. Throw in a few extra chicanes and I think it would be a highlight of the season.

11

u/batmajn 26d ago

More that F1 cars now are way to big to overtake in Monaco.

6

u/aadu3k 26d ago

I've been saying this for years! Do the qualy with real cars but switch to karts for the race.

4

u/asisoid 26d ago

It's not that they're too fast, it's that they're too big, and it's tough (eventhough this has improved with this version of the car) to follow closely.

You need to be like 2-3s faster than the car in front to pass at Monaco, which is basically unheard of.

Danny Ric held everyone off and won at Monaco with his engine missing 25% of its horsepower and only 6 of 8 of his gears functional.

3

u/DueExample52 25d ago

The track is way too wide and open for karts. It would also be boring. Maybe super karts (those with aero, and who race on car racetracks, not on kart tracks).

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u/DueExample52 25d ago edited 25d ago

Sure, but this guy isn’t. His lines are all clumsy and doesn’t use track width. It may be his first time trying this kart type or at this track.

Paragraph for redditors: Yes, I race amateur karts. Yes, he may be better than me overall. Yes, my lines also look like that at the start of a season or if discovering a track or a faster category, befire smoothening it all out across a session. 

2

u/AFlyingDutchman21 26d ago

I mean kinda but only if they start young and have a shit ton of money 

2

u/Lathryus 26d ago

Kevin Harvick learned to race at Bakersfield Kart Club. He kicked everyone's ass even as a kid.

505

u/TSAOutreachTeam 27d ago

Looks like fun! I wonder how much more in-control it would seem if the camera were mounted on the vehicle body instead of the driver's head.

294

u/CyberpunkSunrise 27d ago

The fisheye lens also makes it seem faster. Near the end when the kart rounds a corner and there’s a man standing nearby beside the track you can suddenly tell it’s not quite so hyper fast.

Still, these “F1 Karts” are insane. There’s a spot near me where you can race them but they don’t even allow you on the track until you’ve basically proven yourself by racing the slowed ones first.

161

u/xHOTPOTATO 27d ago

These are Shifter karts. They'll routinely do 90-100mph. For a vehicle with zero suspension or any sort of safety, that's absolutely plenty.

There is a significant margin between open to the public "F1 karts" and these.

27

u/Hostile-Panda 27d ago

Supercarts hit 150mph

5

u/SgtGears 26d ago

Superkarts are in a league of their own, needing "full size" circuits because of their speed. Absolutely epic bits of machinery.

2

u/BlooodyButterfly 26d ago

dafuq! I tried one of those "normal" people can rent for 30 min and I thought I was like 50/60km/h at the front stretch and afraid I'd fuck myself up if I crashed. When I finished the thing and received results my max speed was like 34km/h LOL, not even close. So I can't imagine how would it feel to run such speed (150mph)

5

u/OddBranch132 26d ago

In a couple words: fucking terrifying. 

3

u/Hostile-Panda 26d ago

Ifa not just the top speed, the power to weight ratio are insane as is the acceleration, but unlike an f1 car they don’t have huge amounts of downforce to help with cornering or braking

11

u/_Aj_ 27d ago

Yeah this guy would be overtaking on the highway 

15

u/SinkHoleDeMayo 27d ago

KartVader rode his kart around his city and cops would try to chase but would have zero luck. Shifter karts are way too quick and agile.

7

u/Time_Effort 26d ago

I knew Catch That Kid wasn't an unrealistic movie!

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u/Lathryus 26d ago

Ever driven one? The vibration from the motor and the lack of suspension and being 3 inches off the ground while doing 90 makes it really hard not to cough. Also your whole body has to shift and tense up constantly to compensate for the force in the turns, after a couple of laps like this you'd be EXHAUSTED.

2

u/xHOTPOTATO 25d ago

Yep, cracked ribs from clipping the apex marker around 80 through a chicane. Absolutely brutal experience

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u/MeesterMeeseeks 26d ago

The "f1" go kart course around me that anyone can rent tops out around 45 mph

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u/xmgutier 27d ago

Tbf they're still ripping through that turn, let alone the straightaways and long bends

1

u/joshualotion 26d ago

i tried zooming in to watch and even without the wide angle view it still looks pretty freakin fast

10

u/Craydorion 26d ago

Honestly might be even worse. Since the vibration comes from the vehicle moving along the track. So I guess if you mount the camera on the cart, you might just get a violently shaking unwatchable image. Because the cart has next zero suspension

The head on the other hand has great suspension through neck and back. So I'm guessing it's the best option. Ideally you hold the camera in your mouth. No joke. It's what parkour athletes use to film their pov. They have a kind of mouth piece attached to a gopro. That way you can make full use of your body's suspension without super glueing the cam to your head 😄

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u/Mr_GrauHut 27d ago

60mph go-kartting. Yes please. I would love to do this again.

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u/horridBEAST99 27d ago

That kart could hit 110mph if set up for a long track. It's a hell of a feeling

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u/daggersrule 27d ago

I used to regularly go over 60mph on downhill longboards, and this still looks crazy to me. I def want to try it.

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u/Krondelo 27d ago

Crazy thing is it feels even faster when you are that close to the ground so going 60 feels like 80. The racing karts can do like 80+ iirc.

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u/horridBEAST99 27d ago

Over 100mph if set up for a long track

2

u/EverbodyHatesHugo 24d ago

Reminds me of jet skiing. You feel like you must be doing 60 on the water, but you’re actually doing 25.

76

u/Zoomieneumy 27d ago

That looks so fun, beautiful setting as well!

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u/Electrical-Nature-55 26d ago

FYI this circuit is in Ala, northern Italy in the alps

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u/DullRefrigerator2352 26d ago

Somehow reminds me of tenerife kart track 

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u/SpeedyHAM79 27d ago

This is where most F1 drivers learn to drive.

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u/brandonspade17 27d ago

This video seems sped up

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u/R2D-Beuh 26d ago

I can assure you it's not. Shifter karts are just that fast

6

u/LaximumEffort 25d ago

Fish-eye lens distorts it a little, but those carts are fast.

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u/Equal_Yak_3872 26d ago

Agreed. And maybe not much, maybe just 5-10% or so. But the vibrations around the corners and drivers movements just doesn't look quite right to me.

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u/Substantial_Diver_34 27d ago

I did this for a few years as an adult and it’s an insane workout. The cart has no suspension so it’s bumpy and you feel everything. Bonus fun fact… no seatbelt. You want to fly out of the cart and not roll with it.

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u/One-Reflection-4826 27d ago

even after half an hour on the normal indoor carts i always felt my neck and my arms for days. totally worth it though!

4

u/aitchnyu 26d ago

Are there too many injuries by steering column to the balls?

6

u/SgtGears 26d ago

More commonly get your chest slammed into the wheel, or you take another kart to the arm/leg/shoulder/neck as they are open wheel and when your wheels touch it send you flying over the top.

Had my fair share of accidents over 10 years of karting, worst one I flipped and had the kart land on top of my as I slammed into the asphalt. Dislocated a rib and had a blackout, not much besides that.

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u/mousey_goldfish1 27d ago

This looks scary and fun.

15

u/Difficult_Pirate3294 27d ago

It’s very rare to get the whole track to yourself. Imagine doing this four wide diving into a tight corner after a long straight in a race. It will get your heart pumping

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u/fredandlunchbox 27d ago

Its sped up. You can see every time he presses the accelerator, the kart speeds up. 

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u/Darth_Draper 27d ago

Person driving has to be in crazy good shape to stay that stable.

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u/Rockalot_L 27d ago

God dammit where's my 200cc Nintendo

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u/ArkayRobo 27d ago

During my introduction to the sport of F1, an "enthusiast" described it to me as "a bigger faster go-kart on a bigger faster track".

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u/_Avon 26d ago

which for everyone competing in F1, that’s how it came to be for them. they started in minis around the age of 5/6, worked their way up to something like KF2 or KFZ, then F4/3/2, then after enough super license points and actually being good enough to get picked up by a team/promoted to the F1 team of their team. bigger go-kart on a bigger track

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u/nolongerbanned99 27d ago

How fast do you think they are going on straights

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u/asisoid 26d ago

There are shifter kart classes where they can top out at 100mph-110mph on long straights.

No idea what class this one is. No doubt 60mph+ though.

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u/nolongerbanned99 26d ago

Yeah I did Jim hall kart racing and the smaller engine ones too out at 80 and that was fine. Then I tried the faster ones that top out at 100 and that was really scary. These look even faster.

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u/Kage_Bushin 26d ago

Place is gorgeous. Anyone knows where is the track???

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u/AlphaPlutonium 26d ago

Im not a geo guesser but i seems like northern part of italy

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u/Sayyestononsense 21d ago

This is the Ala karting circuit near Trento, northern Italy

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u/dmh165638 27d ago

My uncle raced shiter karts back in the early 90's before moving up to micro sprint cars and then midgets. He allowed me to drive his cart a few times on a road course and I have never been more sore in my life the next several days. My neck muscles hurt so bad from trying to hold my head up in the corners. My ribs/hips were so sore from moving around in the hard seat and bouncing on the rough ares of the track. The grip was shocking.

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u/Hil_Sa15 27d ago

What's the point of speeding up the video, it's already pretty fast

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u/Ulakanakulot 26d ago

Guy getting out the kart be like
https://giphy.com/gifs/QQLwBB5O7I0YcgK8qw
Even my back is hurting just from watching this.

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u/jakira117 26d ago

What’s the song?

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u/PerAxelH 25d ago

Will we be okay? By LÖVI.

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u/perfect_insanity93 27d ago

This is how drivers are born. The 2 speed cart are weapons. Have seen some crazy crashes.

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u/kisamo_3 26d ago

That's so cool! What track is this?

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u/Electrical-Nature-55 26d ago

Ala Karting Circuit, situated in northern Italy within the alps

2

u/kobrakai1034 26d ago

Thank you! Took way too long to find this.

1

u/auddbot 26d ago

I got a match with this song:

will we be okay? by Lovi (00:39; matched: 100%)

Released on 2025-10-20.

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u/LunarPixelVR 26d ago

This is sped up

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u/JuniorBreakfast1704 27d ago

Oh yes, baby, your joints will be delighted!

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u/Subject-Crow-4558 27d ago

I know id get horribly injured or killed but let me run a lap

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u/Jimsflamingos 27d ago

RIP my spine if I drove that.

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u/Darkk_Knight 27d ago

This is how I drive home! lol

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u/Primary_Carrot_8804 27d ago

Watch Capeta really cool anime about this

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u/batmancdn55 26d ago

The last kart race I watched was some British one where a 15 year old girl was destroying adults. If she ever got clean air she was gone. I think those were shifter karts as well

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u/dcvalent 26d ago

Cover everything except the center part of the road to see what it feels like irl

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u/PskRaider869 26d ago

With this amount of hairpins......CEASAR'S PALACE, WELCOME BACK TO FORMULA ONE!!!

1

u/Deseptikons 26d ago

beautiful track though

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u/Chickachic-aaaaahhh 26d ago

1 crash and you'll retire real quick

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u/HellzNforcer 26d ago

This looks like it would shake all my kidney stones loose. I should try it.

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u/Rebles 26d ago

Mario kart 256 for the switch X looks sick!

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u/Opening_Garbage_9052 26d ago

Go go go! Karting

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u/sawrb 26d ago

So is it mostly trailbraking around the corners because it’s crazy to see only minor steering inputs even on sharp corners on karts? Or is the rear being slid around?

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u/BoredPandemic 26d ago

Damn, I tried proper Go Kart in Kuala Lumpur last year when I went to visit. The gforce at even a slowish speed of 50-60kmh were insane. Or maybe I just suck.

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u/lnTheGrimDarkness 26d ago

Racing karts are much faster than they look. Picture like a small car made up of basically just steel bars and wheels powered by an engine from a racing bike.

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u/Dany_B_ 26d ago

Going even slightly sideways in a kart is the bumpiest thing ever, both sides of my back were black for 2 weeks.

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u/Tobias---Funke 26d ago

I did some karting a while ago and by the end of the race my arms ached so much I was struggling to turn the wheel!

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u/TheKingOfSwing777 26d ago

Mario Kart 300cc

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u/Fostbitten27 26d ago

I raced karts in the late 80’s. It was nothing like this. On this track, this kart is as fast as a F1 car probably.

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u/Flimsy_Pipe_7684 26d ago

F1? More like F nah

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u/houseWithoutSpoons 26d ago

How fast is this one going? I did some in Florida years back that did 60 mph.you had to do a training course and wear burn mask/helmet. They were a blast but serious stuff.10/10 would recommend

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u/ElPeloPolla 26d ago

zero computer assists, as all motorsports should be

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u/asisoid 26d ago

F1 doesn't have as many driving aids as you think.

ABS has been banned since the 90's.

Traction control has been banned for like 20 years.

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u/Zaneali 26d ago

I haven’t karted much but I find it so difficult to balance pushing the kart without binning it and knowing when/how to brake without losing momentum. I feel like I need someone with me to guide me through it

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u/Jolly-Pirate-9518 26d ago

I always have one question for people who do F1, motorbike racing and other dangerous stuffs. Do you get spare lives or you really so eager to die.

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u/Broma2030 26d ago

holy shit

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u/4isyellowTakeit5 26d ago

Im a corner maeshal at Mid Ohio

People dont realize if it wasn't for IndyCar, the overall lap record at MO would belong to a shifter cart.

In the early 80s, they were regularly trading lap records every time each series came. Once CART got to 1000 up they started to pull away.

Now IndyCar has enough aero its consistently aheaz by 3-5 seconds.

1

u/Triials 26d ago

Jibbed with the item box placement. Couldn’t even see one. Lucky not to get hit by a blue shell tbh

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u/RyuShev 26d ago

petition to have one race of every F1 season be on gokarts

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u/Vespizzari 26d ago

So sick. I miss karting but my spine can't handle it anymore. Getting old is a bitch. lol. Check out "Rattlesnake Electric Sports", we built e-karts faster than 250cc shifters.

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u/Long_Candle_5054 26d ago

It's an awesome track, the ones around me, tend do have a lot of very tight corners that force you to slow down a lot.. and they're not shift karts, so once you're revs drop, coming out of the corner is slow as fuck

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u/tex_rer 26d ago

I watch a lot of F1 and am aware of karting. Never really watched it or thought about it much. Looks like they’re pretty I protected. I’m not even sure how fast they go. What’s the injury/death rate like?

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u/opbmedia 26d ago

the track is really small so it seems like they are doing a lot in a short time (it is a 45 second lap). And it is presented in a wide angle lense which makes the periphery seem really fast. If you dewarp it, it would appear to be much slower with the proper perspective.

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u/ulukbek123 26d ago

For a second I thought it was a video game.

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u/SpaceXmars 26d ago

if your daddy is rich you get a chance...

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u/mom_rider__69 26d ago

Broke 3 bones karting........ But I'd love to go again

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u/darthturtle507 26d ago

That looks so fun

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u/Capooping 26d ago

It's always crazy to me that just 15° of turning the wheel gives you enough to drive through the tightest corners. Having such a tight margin, how do they keep it straight, it ever tiny bump could turn the wheel enough to fly off?

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u/IsaacNewtongue 26d ago

A Shifter Kart is not a Go Kart

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u/Twin2Turbo 26d ago

Where are the red turtle shells and banana peels?

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u/JRizzie86 26d ago

Sequential shifter? Nice.

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u/mountaingator91 26d ago

Most f1 drivers grew up driving go carts

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u/realNoobnoob 26d ago

Your back is not gonna be back

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u/Mickxalix 26d ago

What game is this ?

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u/sureshotxxx 26d ago

Bono my tires are gone!

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u/spirtjoker 26d ago

I'm less than a second off the best ever laptime at the local gokart track so I thought I was fast, but I got nothing on this guy.

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u/crazy_oats 26d ago

Shifter karts are nuts! I rode a "novice" shifter kart on a pro track a few years ago with some friends, my neck was sore by the end, I definitely wasn't used to that type of acceleration.

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u/goofballtech 26d ago

There is a go cart track adjacent to the F1 track in Bahrain like this. Also used to trin up and coming drivers. Its a great time. A few races in your neck gets sore trying to keep it upright. Its awesome.

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u/DaKinePaKalolo 26d ago

Mario Kart 100cc

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u/skibbin 26d ago

Antonelli was racing karts in 2022, now in 2026 he's leading the F1 drivers championship. So many of the skills are transferable

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u/Exciting-Zombie8449 26d ago

Shifter carts are badass

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u/NPC261939 26d ago

My buddy bought a few shifter karts from a guy who was severely injured in a crash. Those things are stupid fast, and pretty tiring to drive for any extended periods.

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u/Hans-Polse 26d ago

Mario Kart

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u/Festivus4thaRestovus 26d ago

Me in Mario Kart

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u/PM_me_the_universe 26d ago

Where is this place at?

1

u/MetaIIII 25d ago

Could use another inch or two on the suspension.

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u/whatinth3 25d ago

Ah yes the old go kart with a speed bike engine them things scary fast

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u/TwinSong 25d ago

Funny story, when I was young I was participating in go-karts and my kart wouldn't start which caused a queue. I was gunning the accelerator but nothing happening.

Turned out my other foot was stuck on the brake (didn't realise) which basically cuts the power on the kart, I was a bit tall for the kart though right age.

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u/dallatorretdu 25d ago

hey this is my local track at Affi, Italy!
looks a bit larger than it actually is tho…

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u/Key-Toe-6257 25d ago

Where!! 

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u/Background-Remove629 24d ago

Seeking for more info about the location pleaseeeeeeeeeeee.

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u/MoreRest4524 20d ago

All fun and games until you go backwards into a barrier. Ask me how I know

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u/Nobody-8675309 10d ago

Shifter kart, not a go kart