UPDATED: KF1 World Championship thoughts

As they have been for most of the year, the Vortex drivers have almost completely swept the board during the heats. The only Parilla driver to win a heat has been Sauro Cesetti while the rest have gone to Gary Catt (3 wins), Marco Ardigo (1 win) and Kosmic’s Nikolaj Bollingtoft (1 win). Now Ardigo has taken the title with both Prefinal and Final wins.

Not only does the Vortex have better top-end, the Tonykart drivers use their PI data acquisition systems to regulate tyre pressures and temperatures which stops them burning up their tyres as quickly as some others. Everyone is getting a new set tomorrow for the Prefinal and Final.

With the engines, it’s not so much that the Vortex has more power, but as one of the leading Parilla drivers Jason Parrott says “We are as fast as the Vortexes at the bottom but they are ahead at the top. We could change things so there is as much top end but then we’d lose out in the middle and bottom.” The Vortex is just much more versatile in KF1 configuration.

Alan Dove speculates that the dominance of the Vortex and therefore Tonykart is bad for the sport, but I suspect that Vortex may succumb to the lure of cold hard cash and let drivers on other chassis use the engines and then we could end up with a situation like JICA where only one engine is worth using. We should remember though that some alterations to the homologation will be allowed this winter so Parilla, TM and PCR could close the gap now they’ve undoubtedly had a good look at the Vortex.

Gianluca Beggio seems to be back at Birel, which some say is a reason why Cesetti is going well and not languishing in midfield like he has been most of the season. There also seems to be an upgraded chassis.

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