Top 5 Most Common Karting Mistakes (And how to fix them)

By Alessio Lorandi, 2013 CIK-FIA World Champion, KF-Junior. Updated on 22 October 2026.

Alright guys, in this article I’m going to share with you the karting mistakes that I feel are the most frequent. The ones I commonly see with my kids when I do the coaching, and throughout my entire career being on the racetrack.

Some mistakes are pretty general, whereas others are more specific.

And then I’m going to go one step further. Because not all mistakes are treated equal. There’s one type of mistake that I consider very bad, and there’s one type of mistake that I consider very good. And at the end, the bad habits behind most of these mistakes, and why you want to fix them as early as possible.

I hope that some of these mistakes can resonate with you and hopefully push you to improve yourself. So, having said that, let’s go.

What are the 5 most common karting mistakes?

1. Lack of proper tires warm up
2. Cannot keep consistent
3. Always blaming the kart
4. Not aggressive enough during the race
5. Bad at giving setup feedback

Let me go through them one by one.

Why does warming up the tires properly matter so much?

So, mistake number one that I see is that they never warm up the tires properly. This is one of the most common mistakes, since so many people don’t really focus on this.

But the really, really good drivers I’ve been driving against are really clever and they focus a lot on warming up the tires.

When you warm up the tires faster and better than your competitors, you will have the grip earlier than them.

Therefore, you will be able to be much more aggressive in the race. Perhaps if you’re leading a race, you pull away from the pack. Or if you’re in qualifying, it gives you more time to wait in the pits and get out later, so that you can still do the time.

Whereas your competitors will not be able to do that.

So generally speaking, it’s really important to train yourself to improve your warm up technique. Because when you do that, in a race, you’re going to be so much better than your competitors in the first few laps.

Can you just run higher tire pressures instead?

You cannot do too much with tire pressure. Because yeah, you can say “well, I will increase the tire pressure and so I can go faster in the beginning”. But there’s a limit for that.

You cannot go with high tire pressures just because you’re not good enough with the warm up procedure. So, it’s really important for you to focus on that.

Why do drivers struggle to stay consistent in a race?

The second most common mistake I see is that they struggle with consistency.

So, they might be doing a great lap, a really good lap in qualifying, but then they struggle to maintain the pace and they drop backwards.

This is really a big problem. Because if you cannot sustain your ultimate level, your ultimate pace, then you’re going to be going backwards in the race.

If you want to be at the top, you have to make as few mistakes as possible. And you also need to be as fast as possible.

So, throughout the entire race, if you are not consistent, you’re going to suffer. Because when you make a mistake, people will overtake you.

You want to maximize your concentration, so that you keep your consistency and make fewer mistakes. Focus on this.

This is more difficult to improve compared to the warm up procedure, because it’s something more subjective and you really have to work on yourself.

But I tell you what, if you want to be a pro driver, you have to focus on consistency. Not only on the fastest lap that you see on your MyChron. Your consistency is key. And if you want the whole session read for you, not only the fastest lap, upload the MyChron file to PURPL, the app I built, and it hands back the three things to change next time out.

Why is always blaming the kart the worst mistake?

The third most common mistake that I see is that they are always blaming the go kart. They’re always blaming the equipment, and they’re not taking responsibility for themselves.

To me, this is probably the worst, because it tells me that there is a lack of willingness to learn, willingness to improve, and there’s no accountability.

So, you really need to be more responsible for yourself if you are in this category. Please stop blaming the go kart and start driving like you are supposed to drive.

Is it okay to admit you made a mistake?

Yes. If you make a mistake, there’s no problem with admitting it. Just say “I made the mistake”, or “I’m not driving well enough, I need to understand how to do this corner properly”, and so on.

So please take responsibility for yourself and don’t blame the kart. Don’t make excuses all the time.

Of course, if the kart has issues, then just say it. But don’t keep saying it. I mean, it’s never going to be always about the go kart.

The best drivers I’ve ever raced with or coached are the ones who blame themselves first. They took responsibility even when I genuinely believed it wasn’t really their fault.

So please make sure that you are taking responsibility for yourself.

How aggressive should you be in a kart race?

The fourth most common mistake is that they are not aggressive enough in the races. And this is a big problem, because when the race starts, you have to be really aggressive.

Now, I don’t mean that you have to crush other people or take them out. I’m just saying that you have to have the right amount of aggressiveness, so that it allows you to:

• Keep your position and move forward
• Not lose your position
• Maintain focus in the first laps

Especially in the first laps of the race. That’s where it’s really important to keep the focus and a good level of aggressiveness.

And what I see oftentimes is people not covering, so the other drivers can easily overtake them. That is a big frustration for me when I see it with my kids when I coach them.

I do understand that you don’t want to be overly aggressive. But especially at the beginning of the race, you have to be smart. Smart and aggressive.

And that means overtaking when the opportunity is there, and defending at the right time, so that you don’t get overtaken.

Why does bad setup feedback give you a bad setup?

Now, the fifth common mistake is that they’re not really good at giving feedback for the setup. And this again is not so easy to fix, because it takes time.

If you’re in this category, you need to think thoroughly about your setup and then give feedback.

Think thoroughly about what you say. Because if you give bad feedback, you’re going to get a bad setup.

So it’s important for you to be really clear, and to train yourself to give better feedback. That’s also where a coach can help you: a coach can help you give more feedback, and better feedback.

Are some karting mistakes actually good?

Yes. And this is the part most people don’t expect. You may be like, “Oh, but Alessio, all mistakes should be bad, shouldn’t they?”

Well, I don’t agree. There’s one mistake that I consider very bad, and one type of mistake that I consider very good. And that’s not just based on my experience. It’s also based on many, many drivers that I raced against and spoke with, and on books I read from drivers like Michael Schumacher. They may not be using the same words as me, but they describe something very similar.

The two mistakes I’m talking about are over pushing, and the opposite, which is under pushing.

Not all mistakes should be treated equally. You should champion over pushing mistakes over the others, because it means you’re trying.

What does over pushing look like in qualifying?

In simple terms, over pushing is when you go into a corner and, let’s say it’s qualifying, you have to discover the grip level. You never know exactly what the grip level of a specific corner is. Before qualifying everybody goes out on new tyres, the categories before you went on new tyres, and so the track all of a sudden gets more grippy. But you don’t know exactly where the grip is.

So you have two choices to make. Either you go in full send mode on lap one: once your tyres are up to temperature, you push beyond your limits in order to find the limit. That’s the driver in over pushing mode.

Or you take it step by step and creep up on it. That’s under pushing.

And obviously it’s very hard to tell where the limit is. As a driver you are always guessing. You’re like “okay, I’m going to brake here”. To be honest, in most cases we don’t even have references for where we brake, so we have to brake by feeling.

How do two drivers find the limit in the same corner?

Let’s say the limit, the perfect braking point in qualifying, is 25 metres from the apex. I’m just making a random number, okay? It’s just an example.

The driver in over pushing mode is not going to brake at 25 metres, not at 30 metres. On lap one he may be braking at 22 metres.

The other driver, in under pushing mode, which is much more conservative, is going to be braking at, let’s say, 28 metres.

Both of them are going to be losing time. The over pusher brakes too late, and I expect him to miss the apex, because he has over pushed. Maybe the time loss is, let’s say, one tenth from the ideal corner.

But then what’s going to happen on lap two?

The over pushing driver goes “okay, you know what, I just made a mistake, I missed the apex”. And really quickly in his brain he’s like “next lap I’ve got to brake a bit earlier”. So the lap after, he brakes at 24 metres. He almost makes the apex, just about missing it by a very tiny bit. The corner is still very fast. He only loses, let’s say, three hundredths of a second. Obviously not amazing, but not bad.

The under pushing driver goes from 28 metres to, let’s say, 27. He’s gaining only one metre on the brakes, because he’s a conservative driver. He brakes a bit later, so he turns a little bit later than before, but it’s still too early at the apex and he still loses time. Let’s say 0.05. Half a tenth.

Maybe on lap three both of them nail it and get to the absolute limit. Although I don’t believe there is any such thing as a perfect corner. You can always do the corner a thousandth of a second faster. And that’s not only me saying it, by the way. Senna used to say this, and I thoroughly believe in it. If you believe you made the perfect corner, that’s when you stop improving. That’s when you stop growing.

But the point I wanted to make is this: two drivers trying to get to the limit in two different ways.

Why is over pushing better than under pushing?

Why do I believe over pushing is way better than under pushing? First of all, because it takes less time to find the limit.

Picture the limit as a line, and call it 100%. The conservative driver is at about 80% on lap one. He brakes very early. The next lap he is at 88%, then 90%, then 92%, and by the end of the session he probably reaches the limit.

You might say: he got there by lap seven, so what is the problem?

Look at the difference. The over pushing driver does the opposite. On lap one he goes straight past the limit, say 105%. He realizes “oh, I pushed a bit too hard, I need to brake a bit earlier”, and already by lap two or three he has found the limit.

And when you are under the limit, you never really know where the limit was. Think about it. If you make the apex so easily, you probably assume, if you’re realistic, that you are not on the limit, right? Think about all the times you made an apex and you’re like “oh, I made it too easily, I should have braked a bit later”.

It’s like you put a mental sticky note in your brain: “next lap I’ve definitely got to brake later”. But you brake maybe one metre later than the lap before. And what if you are braking 10 metres too early? It will take you 10 laps doing one metre steps. It’s going to take so long. And if it’s a qualifying where you have to find the limit in two, three laps, you will not find it before the end of the session.

What if you already know the track?

You might say “but I know the track, I already know where the limit is”. Well, yes, it could be a good argument. But the reality is that on new tyres, the track always gets quite a bit faster. Maybe sometimes half a second, sometimes even one second, if the track becomes very, very grippy with soft tyres from all the categories on track.

If you are the conservative driver that pushes the limit just little by little, I’m telling you, you’re not going to get to the limit as fast as the driver in over pushing mode. That driver brakes too late on lap one, misses the apex, bam. Lap two he brakes a bit too late again, bam. Lap three, he’s on it.

Obviously nobody’s a robot. It’s difficult to be perfect every lap. Not even Max Verstappen can do that. But if you have this kind of mindset, if you have no fear, if you’re full of courage and you just go on lap one and send it a little beyond the limit, you get there first.

How does over pushing help your tyre temperature?

There’s another very, very important part you have to consider: the tyre temperatures play a massive role. In 90% of conditions, especially with these ecological tyres nowadays that are so hard, the more laps you do the warmer they get, and every lap it gets faster and faster. We had a race with MG tyres at the Italian championship, and it was exactly like that.

So in a six minute qualifying, the last lap is always going to be the quickest, because the tyres just need more temperature, more energy. And if you drive like a gentleman on lap one, if you drive very conservatively, you’re not going to warm up the tyres as much as if you attack the corners like crazy with this over pushing mentality.

And over pushing is not only the braking point. It’s also how efficient you are on the brakes. If you are over pushing and you realize you’re missing the corner, you’re like “I have to hold the brakes like crazy”. So you’re at maximum threshold braking, and then trailing the brakes until the apex. You threshold brake at the beginning, almost locking the tyres, and by doing so you generate a huge amount of temperature.

Whereas the under pushing driver brakes early. And what are you going to do if you brake early, which 99% of drivers do? Not only do they turn early, but they release the brakes. By doing so you’re not generating temperature. You’re just not generating grip. Especially in cold conditions or on hard tyres. If you’re driving on MGs or Maxxis and you are not generating the temperature, you’re driving on ice in the first laps.

And so it’s a vicious cycle. Because you’re not pushing in the first laps, you’re going to be sliding more and more.

Why is under pushing even worse in a race?

I’m telling you, this is not only deadly for a quali. It’s way more deadly in a race.

Say you manage to get P1 in quali because you have amazing equipment, and on the last lap you’re able to put everything together and do an alien lap.

But then you go into the race, and on lap one you take it step by step. You’re at 90% of the limit, and the others are already at 99 or 101. They’re not only warming up the tyres way more than you, they’re finding the limit way earlier than you.

So even if you are starting P1, you probably get passed in every corner by at least one driver. And if it’s 10 corners, you’re going to get passed by 10 drivers. Honestly, I’m exaggerating, I know. But you have to understand the point.

That’s why, when I see my drivers at BabyRace being too conservative, losing a tenth or two tenths in one corner because they brake early and release the brakes, and they do it not only on lap one but also on the last lap, I get so mad. Because I’m like “mate, what are you afraid of?”

Can you build car control without going over the limit?

No. You develop car control when you are driving over the limit, and car control is an essential skill. It’s like ice karting, that is how you develop car control. But you do not develop car control when you’re driving below the limit. Think about it: when you’re running in the engine, you’re not developing car control, because you’re so far away from the limit. You only develop it when you are on the limit or above the limit.

Oh, I’m missing the corner. I’m controlling oversteer, controlling understeer. That alone should frame you into this over pushing mindset.

Of course, when you get to the last laps, you obviously want to bring it back. It is not: “Alessio said over push, so I am going to miss the apex on purpose”.

No. You need to do it strategically. I’m so happy if you miss the apex in the first few laps of a session while you’re finding the limit. You start by going over it, and then you gradually come back to it. The goal is that by the end of the session you are on the limit, not above the limit.

Come on, let’s be real. The best way to get to the limit is to really go beyond it and then get closer.

When should you not over push?

Street circuits. I raced on street circuits: Macau, the Pau Grand Prix and the Norisring in F3. I also won a major Formula 3 race at Pau, and that was an amazing time. But what you learn on the street circuits is that you cannot over push on lap one. Because if you do, you’re in the wall. Not only are you going to lose a lot of track time, it’s very expensive.

So on the street circuits I had to change my approach, from over pushing to the under pushing mentality. If you overshoot the corner and go into the wall, it’s game over. Especially in quali or in a race. So you have to take it step by step.

But what I realized is that I don’t like that approach. It’s not efficient, because it takes so long to get to the lap time. And I was like, man, now I understand why it’s so important to over push in the first laps on normal tracks, especially in karting.

In karting there are no street circuits. Unless you’re doing some street circuit races, and then please ping me, I want to come too. That would be fun. But in karting you don’t have that problem. You can push your limits. And that’s what I love about karting: you don’t have to worry about crashing and spending 150 grand on car repairs like you have to in GT3s or in formula cars.

Karting is the purest form of motorsport, I believe. You can really throw the kart and push the limits, and that’s so fun by the way. That’s what makes me feel alive when I drive, and I guess that’s what makes you feel alive too.

Guys, there’s nothing to lose. There’s nothing to be afraid of. I came from Formula 3 and Formula 2, where I was so freaking scared of destroying the car when I was in Macau. My father, before I got into the car, was like: “Alessio, push, but be careful. Better to lose a tenth than destroy the car.” Because many times we didn’t have the budget.

If I crashed, not only would I not be able to race the next races, I probably would have had to stop altogether. In formula cars and GTs there is no insurance that covers it. If you try to find that extra tenth and you destroy the car, you have to spend 200 grand to repair it. I had teammates where that was like pocket change for them.

So long story short, when I got back to karting, I was like “this is amazing”. I can over push the limits without any constraints, without any fear of causing damage.

What’s the worst? You’re going to pick up some dirt, some grass, some stones when you go off the track. And that’s amazing.

How do you know you found the limit on a testing day?

I have this rule at BabyRace, especially on the testing days when they have to learn new tracks. I tell them: if you do not come back with grass or dirt on the kart, you never went off, which means you never found the limit.

I want the kart to literally come back in the tent with grass on top of it.

Obviously, there are two ways to go off the track. One, because you pushed the limits and tried to use more track, for example on entry, and you just dropped a wheel and went off. Or because you over pushed the corner: you went on the gas and went off on the exit.

There’s another way, which is forgetting to turn and missing the corner with little speed. That’s another kind of mistake. But to be honest, it’s very rare to go off the track because you’re not pushing enough.

So you should be making these mistakes. Next time you go out on track, frame your mindset and say: “you know what, I’m going to choose over pushing rather than under pushing. On lap one I’m going to find the limit. I’m going to be beyond the limit.” By doing so it’s going to be much easier to find the limit and come back to it.

Not only that, it’s going to be so much better for your tyres, because you generate temperature earlier on. And you’ll have a much better, more aggressive driving style, especially in the race.

How do I find the limit in qualifying?

When I go into a qualifying session, on the first laps I over push. Obviously I need to get basic temperature in the tyres first, because it’s not good for the tyre to start pushing and sliding until there is basic core temperature. But whenever I have the temperature, let’s say lap one or two, I start over pushing, because by doing so I figure out right away where the limit is.

It’s so much easier for me to find the limit that way, instead of waiting for the last lap. Because let’s say there are 12 corners in a lap. You don’t only have to find the limit in one corner. You have to find it in turn one, turn two, turn three and all the others. If you postpone this to the last lap when the tyres are hot, you’re probably not going to find it in most of the corners. Not even if you’re the GOAT, I’m telling you.

I learned a lot of this from Max Verstappen. I was looking up to him. He was always one category above me, except for two, three races we did together in juniors. And I remember this guy on lap one at the Winter Cup at Lonato, in January or February. He was braking so hard, locking the tyres, and the rears were smoking. By doing so, not only could he brake super late, he could generate so much tyre temperature.

He was winning in his category and I was winning in mine. We had back to back wins there, and that race was considered like the world championship. There were about 120 drivers per category in those years. Unfortunately that race does not exist any more.

On lap one and two he was pushing like crazy, much more than anybody. He would build a gap of one, two seconds within the first five laps, and then it would be easy for him. Once the gap was established, everybody would start fighting in the back. It was such an easy win for him.

The reason why he was so good: not only was he warming up the tyres so well on the formation lap, he was amazing in the first couple of laps. He would push more than the others and generate more temperature. And I learned from that moment that I had to do the same.

It’s my standard operating procedure now. You will see me going off the track. You’ll see me making mistakes because I use too much track, because I brake too late, because I get on the gas too early. So try applying this next time you are on track. And for the session itself, here are my qualifying tips on new tyres.

What are the most common bad driving habits?

So hear me out. A lot of the mistakes above are habits.

We all have habits in our lives. We have habits at school, at home, at the gym, at the track. We have habits when we drive, and we have habits in the paddock. Some of them are positive, they are good. And some of them are negative: they make you go worse.

The positive ones are things like being very consistent, hitting your apexes, using the brakes properly, putting your head down every lap, the optimal racing line, and maximum track usage.

The goal is to have as many good habits as possible, and to fix the negative habits one by one. And remember, it’s not just on the track, it’s also off the track. There’s not going to be 100 habits. There are going to be 5, 6, 7, 8 main habits.

Why do bad habits get harder to fix as you move up?

Picture your racing career as a mountain. This is you starting now, at the beginning of your career, and this is you in 10 years’ time as a professional racing driver. That means Formula One, if that’s your goal. But it could be IndyCar, NASCAR, Formula E.

The steps along the way look like this:

1. Mini karting
2. Junior karting
3. Senior karting
4. KZ shifter karts (for many drivers)
5. Formula 3
6. Formula 2
7. Formula 1

Of course, if you don’t want to do the F1 route and want to go into GT racing, it’s an easier mountain. You can do KZ and then go straight into GT as a paid driver, then eventually become a pro.

The more you go up the racing ladder, the steeper the steps become. The stakes become higher and the costs become higher. You’re probably just a kid, and you may not be aware of all the costs, but believe me, in racing your parents are making a big sacrifice. You always have to be grateful.

Every step becomes more expensive. And when it comes to habits, it also becomes more difficult to break the bad ones. So the goal is to take off all the bad habits one by one, literally taking an eraser to them, as early as possible.

Hopefully in Mini karting. New habits may come up along the way, and we have to take them out with the eraser as soon as possible. Maybe there’s a couple we can’t take off in Mini, and maybe that will be the reason why you can’t win every race.

In Junior karting, the goal is to remove all the remaining bad habits, so that from Juniors onwards you have just good habits, positive habits, and no negative ones.

If you arrive in Formula 4 and you still have all these bad habits (racing lines, keeping throttle on the brakes, not braking enough, turning in too early), mate, it’s no chance. No chance.

Every one of us starts with some bad habits. If you drive with a specific team, on a specific track, with a specific coach, you may pick up good habits or bad habits. We all pick some up along the way.

But if you still arrive in F2 with negative habits you could have fixed in Mini karting, like keeping throttle on the brakes, it’s going to be very hard. Fix them early and you reap the rewards of that work. You’re going to have a way easier and smoother career.

How long does it take to break a bad habit?

It doesn’t take one hour or one session or one day. It takes discipline and it takes commitment.

If you are one of those drivers that turns too early, it’s not going to take a session to fix that. If you’re one of those drivers that keeps the throttle on the brakes, it’s not going to take a session. It’s going to take plenty of sessions with conscious thinking.

If you never do that conscious work, you’re never going to fix it. I promise you, it’s going to stay with you.

At first it’s going to be conscious, but then it’s going to be subconscious. Just keep that in the back of your mind.

Take something as simple as the pedal position. The goal is that you keep the optimal pedal position with your legs a little bit bent, so that when you’re flat out and when you’re on the brakes, you’re not too stretched. Then it’s just about being aware, and thinking about it. At first it’s conscious, then it becomes subconscious.

How do you start fixing your karting mistakes?

So, these were the most common mistakes I see at the racetracks, the good mistake and the bad one, and the habits behind them. If you are in one of these categories, learn from it and make a plan, a strategy, for fixing it.

Awareness is the first step. You have to recognize the mistake before you can take the eraser to it. And then you have to choose your mistake: next time you’re on track, choose over pushing.

It’s going to take a little bit of time. But I tell you what, if you want to become a pro kart driver, if you’re serious about karting, then you have to really think thoroughly about this.

If you want me to work on your mistakes and your habits with you, one by one, that is what I do in the 6 months transformation. And if you just want me to look at one of your sessions, send me your onboard for an onboard review.