The first round of the European Karting Championship for the OK and OK Junior direct drive classes will take place this weekend at the Genk circuit, in Belgium. The FIA European Championship is made of 4 appointments: after the Belgian opening race, we will head to Essay in France, then Sarno (Italy) and the last race is scheduled in July on the Spanish track of Zuera.
The youngest drivers of the international karting, who are supposed to be the motorsport champions of tomorrow, will race against each other in these categories. This prestigious Continental Championship has been held under the authority of the FIA since 1972 and among its winners has had many of the drivers, who are currently in F1. The CRG Racing team has achieved more than 10 titles, including Max Verstappen’s one in 2013.
The 2021 edition is shaping up with an entry list full of great potential future talents and the CRG Official Team will line up a total of 7 drivers: 3 in OK Junior and 4 in OK. The Italian Simone Bianco, the Spanish Adrián Ferrer and the Polish Maksymilian Obst will defend the team's colors among the youngest in the Junior category, while the Spanish Rubén Moya, the Finnish Rasmus Joutsimies, the Russian Ksenia Phoenix and the Frenchman Arthur Rogeon will be at the start in the most powerful OK class.
After the free practice scheduled for Thursday, the Genk weekend will continue with qualifying on Friday, the heats on Saturday and Sunday morning and will finally end with the two finals on Sunday, early in the afternoon. Live timing service will be available on the FIA Karting website and the races on Saturday and Sunday will be broadcast in live streaming.
The full presentation of the race weekend with a detailed timetable and the entry list with all the participants attending the event is also available on the Federation website at the following link: https://www.fiakarting.com/event/2021-genk/guide
The CRG drivers expectations:
Simone Bianco (OKJ): “The European Championship and the World Championship are the most important races of the season and all the work done so far has been aimed at being ready for that. In the race we did here 15 days ago, which was made to test our technical material, I felt good with the chassis, but the feeling with the track was still not optimal. Even analyzing the post-race data we saw many aspects that needs to be improved. During free practice we will try to work on the constancy of performance that we lacked last week. The weather could be a variable and affect the race, but we will try not to make mistakes in the qualifying phases, because it would compromise the chances of entering the 34 finalists, which is my minimum goal”.
Rubén Moya (OK): “During the weekend of the Champions of the Future, the race we attended here last week, I immediately found a good feeling with our chassis and also with the track. I am very optimistic to be able to get a good result and the first step to ensure this will be a positive weekend will be to do a good qualifying, considering the very high level of the opponents and how difficult it is to move up in the heats ".