The new karting league aiming to tackle F1's representation problem

The ex-F1 engineer’s latest initiative features a tie-up with FAT International in a bid to make karting more accessible

Sobering. That’s the word I’d use to describe what it’s been like since I took the decision in 2019 to step away from working directly with Formula 1 teams and discover what it’s like in the outside world.

Back then, I didn’t know what would come next, I just wanted to stop. Then I decided whatever I did, I wanted to give back to the community, to do something that was more purpose driven.

That was the ambition behind my Global Karting League, as I’ve described on this page before (21 March), to make motorsport more accessible and diverse by collapsing the price of entry, opening up the market and closing the loop to F1. And now we are taking the next step and scaling up with the launch of the FAT Karting League.

You might recognise the brand FAT International. It was the sponsor on Le Mans-winning Porsches in 1994 and 1997. But what used to be a logistics company is now a culture-driven entity dedicated to making motorsport more accessible, engaging and relevant for the next
generation.

It’s owned by Ferdi Porsche, who just happens to be the great-grandson of Ferdinand Porsche. We met through a mutual friend who realised what we were trying to do independently directly overlaid with each other. We immediately clicked, started talking and we’ve now co-founded FKL.

Next year, along with relaunching our UK hub, we are opening two more in the US with four more to follow the year after. In 2025 the three hubs will work in isolation as their own championships, but competitors will also build points towards a big event at the end of the year: the FAT World Finals.

From that, the best driver from the age-appropriate categories – we run racing series for children from six to 17 – will graduate through a prize drive to car racing in Formula 4. Our ambition is to push someone through F4, F3, F2 – and then you know what comes next.

It’s a potentially game-changing system that is totally sustainable and isn’t reliant on an ultra-high net worth benefactor. We’re approaching karting from a unique position of understanding motorsport from the pinnacle downwards and are therefore able to plot a sustainable and credible pathway.

So how are we breaking down the financial and complexity barriers that have traditionally made motorsport inaccessible? For all ages, we have created a season pass that includes nine championship events that make up the racing season. For the very youngest, aged five and six, an all-in fixed-cost season is around £3800, rising for the older classes to £4400 –
so an average of around £4000.

That’s still a significant sum, but if the incumbent system costs around £125,000 for a season, that’s 96% lower than comparable championships. In time, we hope to gain some buy-in
from sponsors and bring the numbers down further. But, as a value proposition, I would say it’s already pretty compelling.

"Everyone is welcome from all backgrounds. It really is open to all" Rob Smedley

As for our electric karts, there is a lot of capability in our business. Our team includes ex-F1 engineers, like myself, designing and building our karts. That’s unique in our proposition and has allowed us to design something that feels like a conventional combustion kart.

The EV powertrain is based on our knowledge of MGU-K systems in F1 cars and we have tuned them so you have to drive them in a conventional way, using momentum through the corners.

You can’t just use what used to be called the loud pedal to get you out of trouble. We’ve designed them to make it less of a leap to adapt to cars and they can be tuned easily for
different levels of experience too. They are great fun to drive, kids love them and you build up the same skills as in conventional karts.

We are totally agnostic on who we hope to attract – everyone is welcome from all backgrounds. It really is open to all. But the ultimate proof of our plan will be for a female F1 driver to emerge from FKL. We already have more than 30% female representation in our UK hub. In comparison, the ratio in most conventional alternatives is in single digits. There’s nothing preventing a female from racing in F1, but it’s a pure numbers game: if
only single-digit percentages of females are racing at the grassroots level, obviously there’s a very small chance of one making it to F1 relative to the males. One in 20, in fact.

Everyone we have spoken to in motorsport is super-interested in what we are doing, but I haven’t pushed it too hard with my F1 colleagues and friends. We run under the auspices of Motorsport UK here in Britain, for safety and regulation credibility that’s the right thing to do. As a fellow entrepreneur, David Richards has been very supportive. We also have very good relations with the FIA, in terms of future homologation, and F1 has been interested from the start. But I’ve always said let me go away and get it running before anything else.

That’s where I wanted to get it to, and now with Ferdi and FKL we have a strong proposition. Better and genuine accessibility and diversity in motorsport is in our hands.

In this article
Rob Smedley
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