The top karting stars of 2025

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Karting is the training ground of most drivers before single-seaters, and Formula Scout follows all the major series to see which talents may eventually burst onto the car racing scene, and grab F1 teams’ attentions

Formula 1 teams consistently have an eye on karting now, with 13 drivers across five teams forming the contingent of karters who are members of driver development programmes. Mercedes-AMG and Williams have the most faith in the youngest of talent, with four each, and Andrea Kimi Antonelli stepped up to F1 last year with Mercedes after being one of its proteges since he was in junior karting.

Back in 2021, Antonelli was proving himself on OK karts against Joe Turney, who remains one of the best in the world (and is gradually becoming a legend of the sport) to this day. But since he is a mainstay of the senior karting scene, along with Sean Butcher, neither were in contention for Formula Scout’s list of 2025’s top talents.

We will applaud their achievements regardless, with Turney winning the USA Winter Series and coming 11th in the USA’s SuperNationals in the X30 Pro class, being SuperNats runner-up on KA100 Senior karts, and on OK karts finishing as runner-up in the CIK-FIA World Championship for a third time, coming fifth in the Champions of the Future championship and eighth in WSK’s Super Master Series.

Butcher raced in Rotax Senior class of karts all year, and was Rotax Max Challenge Euro Trophy and Winter Series champion, Grand Finals runner-up and finished ninth in the International Trophy.

Key

WSK: Champions Cup (CC), Euro Series (Euro), Final Cup (FC), Open Series (OS), Super Master Series (SMS), Super Cup (SC)
CIK-FIA: European championship (CIK European), World championship (CIK Worlds), World Cup (FIA WC), Karting Academy Trophy (FIA Academy Trophy)
Rotax Max Challenge: Euro Trophy, International Trophy (Int. Trophy), Grand Finals, Winter Series (WS), Golden Trophy
IAME: Euro Series (Euro), Warriors Final (WF), Winter Cup (WC)
Champions of the Future (CotF)
USA SuperNationals (SuperNats), Winter Series (WS)

Thibaut Ramaekers BELGIUM 16y/o
OK CIK World champion, 2nd in CotF, 5th in CIK European, 27th in WSK SMS   X30 Snr 5th in IAME WC

Ramaekers first featured on this list in 2023 when he was a frontrunner in multiple championship in junior karting, and impressed on his OK debut in the senior class.

He missed out on 2024 inclusion due to being up-and-down as he embarked on incomplete campaigns, but he was certainly one of the fastest drivers around.

That included being runner-up in CotF, a feat he repeated this year. In round one he was competing at the front until retirement in his superheat required him to climb from 20th to ninth in the final. He won the superheat in round two and was runner-up in the final, and was on the podium in the most important races again in round three.

Round four was less impressive, but in the Kristianstad finale he romped to pole, four heat wins and three later podiums (the last after leading the final) to take second in the standings.

The CIK-FIA European Championship went the other way, starting on a high at Campillos with pole, three heats win, victory in his superheat and then fourth in the final. In the following rounds he was near the front but only won one heat, and retired in the wet final of the last round.

He bounced back in the style at the World championship, with three wins and two second places in the heats, coming second in the superheat then winning the most important karting race of them all: the final.

Filippo Sala ITALY 14y/o
OK 2nd in WSK Euro, 3rd in WSK FC, 4th in WSK SMS, 4th in CIK European, 10th in CIK Worlds, 18th in CotF

The Ferrari Driver Academy signed Sala last April, and worked to ensure the Italian was able to covert pace into big points.

There was a consistent problem in many events he had competed in prior to 2025, as he was usually the driver to beat in his qualifying group but then would make mistakes later on – such as in finals – when it proved more costly in positions. For example, Sala came fifth in the 2024 European championship despite never finishing a round in a position higher than that.

That was in the OK Junior class, while Sala raced in senior karting last year. It was an impressive rookie campaign, making the top four in four championships.

The WSK SMS was first on his schedule, and Sala finished his debut round in eighth. In round two he won the final, going from third to first on the last lap, then non-finishes in the big races during round three scuppered his title hopes. Sala was runner-up in round four, and competitive in round five but it couldn’t put him higher than fourth in the points table.

That was a strong place to start from in one of the most competitive grids, and Sala carried similar form into the European championship. He was the most consistent driver there, with his lowest scoring round netting him 10 points. Every other full-timer had a worse weekend, and Sala won heats at every round. A bumper penalty dropped him from third to 10th in round one’s final, he had to climb the order to 13th in round two, and fourth in the season’s last race put him fourth in the standings.

His concurrent CotF season began on a high, but after a pole and heat wins in the first two rounds he then went points-free in the next two due to non-finishes and then an awful qualifying result.

Sala was the second strongest driver in the WSK Euro Series, rose through the field to finish the World championship in 10th and and winning the final round (despite showing less competitive pace than in the trickier previous events) put him third in WSK’s Final Cup.

Christian Costoya SPAIN 15y/o
OK CIK European champion, WSK Euro champion, 2nd in WSK SMS, 3rd in CotF, 14th in CIK Worlds

The All Road Management protege, now a McLaren junior too, looked unstoppable at times, particularly in the WSK Euro Series where only two drivers surpassed even a third of the points tally he amassed.

He went unbeaten in both rounds, and in the big races usually had a winning margin surpassing three seconds. In karting, that’s a big gap to have at the front.

The European championship featured similar domination, and he was crowned early despite a points-free final round. Costoya topped his qualifying group three out of four times, went unbeaten in round three at Viterbo, did plenty of winning in round two and still got heat wins at the other two events.

While the World championship didn’t go to plan, finishing 14th, Costoya had already more than proven his brilliance having won rounds and contended for the title in CotF and WSK SMS too.

Noah Baglin ENGLAND 13y/o
OK-J CIK World champion, CotF champion, 2nd in WSK SMS, 2nd in WSK FC, 3rd in CIK European   KA100 Jr USA SuperNats winner   X30 Jr 22nd in USA SuperNats

Having lost the World championship in the OK-J class on the last lap in 2024, Baglin made sure he got the job done this year. He won five heats, his superheat and lights-to-flag in the final with a winning margin of 4.281s.

The Ferrari junior, racing for Prema, was a frontrunner in everything he competed in and that included three classes of kart.

In OK-J he took the CotF title, but his season started on the backfoot as qualifying 16th in round one meant he relied on racecraft to get top-10 results in the races. Despite qualifying seventh for round two, heat victories meant he was on pole for the superheat and he won both that and the final.

Podium sprees followed, then Baglin put it all together to win the final of the final round and that cast him into a title-clinching points lead as his rivals had dreadful weekends and fell behind.

Just two races going differently could’ve made Baglin the WSK SMS and WSK FC champion too. Dean Hoogendoorn, who took the WSK SMS title by three points, edged Baglin to victory by 0.032s in round one’s pre-final with a last-lap pass and by 0.026s in round two’s final. A one-place penalty also took round one victory away from Baglin.

Bosco Arias denied Baglin the WSK FC title by one point, 15th in round two’s final proving costly, and if he had not been disqualified from the whole of round three of the European championship for using an offensive hand signal against another driver he would’ve been at least runner-up in that too.

Over in the USA, he won the major SuperNationals in the KA100 Junior class against the country’s top talents.

Dean Hoogendoorn NETHERLANDS 13y/o
OK-J CIK European champion, WSK SMS champion, 3rd in CIK Worlds, 5th in CotF, 6th in WSK FC   X30 Jr USA SuperNats winner   KA100 Jr 3rd in USA SuperNats

There’s often a trend of a driver who leads the way over the course of a season in the European championship then not appearing near the front in the one-weekend World championship, or vice versa, but Williams junior Hoogendoorn proved he was capable of winning both this year.

His sophomore year on OK-J karts was a big improvement on 2024, and started off in WSK SMS where the Dutchman starred particularly in the wet (winning by 9.5s in one race) and being the overall victor in two rounds. He was unbeaten in qualifying until the final round, in which he didn’t set a laptime and started from the back for all heats. That didn’t stop him from finishing in the top six of each one, climbing over 20 places every time, and fourth in the final made him champion.

In the European championship he again proved a cut above the rest in mixed and wet conditions, and he won races in every round. That consistent podium-taking form ended up comfortably delivering him the title.

Pole, four wins and two second places in the heats then superheat victory put Hoogendoorn on the front row of the World championship final, but he couldn’t maximise it and finished third after a prolonged battle for second as the leader ran away.

Like Baglin, Hoogendoorn went to America for a weekend and he made the USA SuperNationals podium in two junior classes.

Aaron Garcia SPAIN 17y/o
X30 Snr IAME Euro champion, IAME WF winner, 2nd in German championship, 29th in USA SuperNats   OK: 73rd in CIK Worlds, 102nd in CotF

On X30 Senior karts, the driver who was most often the one to beat in 2025 was Garcia, and he was IAME Euro Series champion by over 40 points despite failing to score in the opening round. He didn’t lack pace, since he was fourth in his qualifying group and second in two heats.

In round two he spent plenty of time at the front, including in the final, scoring enough points en route to second overall to jump to third in the standings. It was roughly the same in round three, and while Garcia was beaten to overall honours by 0.847s he still climbed another spot in the points table.

Repeating that route to the final in round four, which he finished fifth in, was enough to make him champion.

While qualifying remained Garcia’s weakness, starting further back never proved to be an issue and in the IAME Warriors Final he qualified sixth but won four heats and the final.

Garcia also contested the German Karting Championship, which he was runner-up in, and cameoed in other locations.

Riley Cranham ENGLAND 14y/o
X30 Jr IAME Euro champion, British champion, Kartmasters British GP winner, 2nd in IAME WC

Already racing cars through the Ginetta Junior Winter Series, Cranham made sure karting’s four-round IAME Euro Series was decided in three with dominant form that allowed him to skip the finale.

He took two wins and a second place in both the finals and superheats of rounds one to three, with only two races where he wasn’t on the podium.

In the British Kart Championship he raced with the coveted O plate and showed he was deserving of it by taking the title. He won the first two rounds, and was the top scorer from the heats at five of the nine events.

At the Kartmasters British Grand Prix, Cranham topped his group in the first round of qualifying, but a win and a non-finish put him 15th in the end-of-day classification. He topped qualifying again the next day, but fourth and 11th in the next two heats meant he had to climb up from 10th to finish fourth in the pre-final. Further progress was made in the final, as he won.

The year began with the IAME Winter Cup, which was almost another Cranham-claimed contest. He comfortably won two of his three heats, was victorious in his superheat then was the long-time leader in the final before falling to fourth late on. Penalties for others lifted him back to second.

Jacob Ashcroft ENGLAND 14y/o
Rotax Jr Euro Trophy champion, British champion, Ultimate Karting champion, Int. Trophy winner, BNL Series champion, 2nd in Grand Finals

A title-winning margin of just 15 points (when eight drivers surpassed 500 points) belied how much of a winning machine Ashcroft was in the RMC Euro Trophy in 2025.

He topped his qualifying group in three of the four rounds, won nine out of 12 heats and made the podium in the final three times. After missing out on victory by 0.05s in round one, he had an unbeaten weekend in round three.

During summer Ashcroft won the RMC International Trophy. He was denied pole by 0.006s, then a non-finish alongside his two heat wins meant he started fourth for his superheat. He won that race, and the final.

On home soil the Rotax Junior titles in the British and Ultimate Karting championships went to Ashcroft, and in Belgium’s BNL Series he was also champion.

That success earned him a ticket to December’s RMC Grand Finals in Bahrain, and he was once again the driver to beat. He was fastest in qualifying, won two heats and came second in the other, was victorious in his pre-final and led the final before finishing second.

Alexander Vanchev BULGARIA/USA 15y/o
X30 Snr 13th in USA SuperNats   KA100 Snr Finalist in USA SuperNats   KA100 Jr USA Pro Tour champion, USA WS champion   X30 Jr USA Pro Tour champion, USA WS champion

There were two names who ruled America’s junior karting scene this year, and Alexander Vanchev was one of them.

He won the USA Pro Tour and Winter Series titles on KA100 and X30 karts, gathering a lot of attention as like Formula 2 star Nikola Tsolov he races under the Bulgarian flag.

In the winter series he won two finals out of four in each of the junior categories, and was unbeaten in the opening round for KA100 Junior. He took that title on victory countback after dropped scores were taken into account, and comfortably claimed the X30 Jr crown.

Although Vanchev never once qualified on pole in the Pro Tour, he was able to make his way to the front in the races. He won three KA100 finals, including round five where he qualified 21st then finished seventh in the pre-final. In the final round he went from 44th to 13th in the pre-final, and climbed another nine places in the final.

In X30 Jr he won the first three rounds, doing so from pole twice, and in round five he bounced back from being disqualified in qualifying to get up to eighth by the final.

For the end-of-year SuperNationals he also stepped up to senior karting. In the X30 Snr class he was runner-up in two of his heats en route to the final, which he finished 13th in. He also made the final in KA100 but retired, with a bad qualifying result putting him on the back foot through the event.

Kai Clarke ENGLAND
Rotax Jr 2nd in WS, 2nd in Euro Trophy, 2nd in Golden Trophy, 3rd in Int. Trophy, 4th in British championship, 10th in Kartmasters British GP, 16th in Ultimate Karting Championship, 28th in Grand Finals

Clarke doesn’t usually smile when on the podium, but he should be happy with what he achieved as one of KR Sport’s driver in 2025.

He was in the top four of five major competitions on Rotax Junior karts, and while his inclusion does make this list a little too heavy on British drivers, it’s worth noting he was a breakthrough talent on the international scene last year while every other name on the list was better known to this writer.

Clarke’s year started in the RMC Winter Series, where he failed to win a race (thanks to a penalty in round two’s final) but was so consistently near the front that he was runner-up in the standings. It was similar in the Euro Trophy, as Clarke never qualified higher than sixth, had penalties in the season’s first half but won the pre-finals in rounds three and four and his podium finishes in the finals propelled him to second in the points with a small deficit to the champion.

At the RMC Golden Trophy he won a heat but retired in the other, then won the final on-the-road before a penalty demoted him to second. On home soil he was less successful, but in a very busy year it was his racing abroad that marked him out.

Maxim Orlov RUSSIA 17y/o
KZ2 CotF champion, FIA World Cup winner, CIK European champion, 4th in WSK SMS, finalist in Trofeo delle Industrie

Shifter karting tends to be where ‘career’ karters go, and drivers who do not head into single-seaters in their later teenaged years, and in the KZ2 class the biggest star of 2025 was Orlov.

He won the Italian championship in 2023, the WSK Final Cup in 2024, and then two of the biggest championships in Europe and the biggest race of all last year. At the end of it he did step up car racing, coming sixth in the SMP Formula 4 winter series.

The CotF season only featured two rounds for KZ2 drivers, and in the first Orlov topped his qualifying group, won one heat and came 0.084s short of a second after being penalised, was superheat runner-up then romped to victory in the final.

A lap one retirement in heat four of six prevented Orlov from having an unbeaten weekend in round two, with huge winning margins in the late races.

He was on top at the end of each weekend in the European championship too. Moving before the red lights went out copped him penalties that denied him unbeaten weekends in rounds one and two’s races, although in the latter’s final he was victorious by a huge 12s. A heat non-finish made the route to victory a little harder in round three, but he still got it done.

At the FIA World Cup, it was more of the same and this time Orlov did tick the ‘unbeaten’ box.

11 more to watch…

On OK karts, Zac Drummond was WSK Final Cup runner-up, third in the European championship and sixth in the World championship and WSK SMS.

In the OK-J paddock, William Calleja started very strongly but had some nightmare weekends which left him as European championship and CotF runner-up. He was also fifth in WSK’s Euro Series, while Valerio Viapiana was the World championship runner-up, fourth in WSK’s Euro Series, fifth in its Final Cup and ninth in the Super Master Series.

Ilie Cristan, now an Alpine junior, was third in CotF and WSK SMS in 2025, fourth in the European championship and WSK Final Cup, fifth in the World championship. The Canadian landed a lot of top-five results, but taking the fight to the biggest names in the finals was often another step up as the year went on.

MP Motorsport has signed Henry Domain for 2026, after he was WSK Euro Series runner-up, fourth in CotF, sixth in the European championship and WSK SMS last year.

In addition to beating Baglin to the WSK Final Cup title, Bosco Arias was fourth in WSK SMS and seventh in the European championship. Also part of the FIA’s karting pyramid is the Academy Trophy, and Yuzuki Sato won the Senior class.

OK-N karts is one of karting’s newest classes, and Italian driver Manuel Scognamiglio was the top talent. He was WSK Euro Series champion, Italian champion and Trofeo Andrea Margutti winner. For the WSK Final Cup he joined the OK grid and was ninth.

Vanchev’s big rival in the USA was Travis Pettit. He was Pro Tour runner-up, fourth in the SuperNats and fifth in the Winter Series in KA100 Jr, and was SuperNats runner-up, fourth in the IAME Grand Nationals and USA Pro Tour in X30 Jr.

The final two names come from the Rotax Snr scene. Macauley Bishop won the RMC Int. Trophy and Grand Finals, was BNL Series champion, RMC Golden Trophy runner-up, fifth in the Ultimate Karting Championship and sixth in the British Championship but was only 10th in the RMC Euro Trophy.

Tino Sidler did better there, coming sixth in the standings, and was third in the RMC Winter Series and BNL Series.

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