What Age Can Kids Start Karting? The Ideal Age to Start

By Alessio Lorandi, 2013 CIK-FIA World Champion, KF-Junior. What is in here comes from my own start at about five and a half years old, and from the kids and parents I work with at BabyRace.

Your kid is five and he is already asking for a kart. Is that too soon?

It’s one of the questions I receive all the time from parents. And I can’t give you an exact age. But there is an age where I think it works best, and there are signs that tell you more than the birthday does. So let me explain.

What age can kids start karting?

You can’t get a kid in a kart too soon. Karting includes an element of danger, because of the speed and the weight of the kart. Imagine putting a toddler on a racing kart.

Even though it has happened that Formula 1 drivers got themselves into a go-kart as early as three, four or five years old. But on average, the kids who do it seriously start from five to six years old.

If it’s for recreation it’s a bit later. Normally the rental kart facilities allow kids from six to seven years old. It depends from country to country, and also from track to track. So it’s not set in stone.

Is there a minimum age to start karting?

The exact age kids can start is nothing really written down by law. What has rules is the licence you need to race, and that’s another story.

For example in Italy there is no limit to get started on a racetrack. You can go testing and training even at four or five years old with no problems.

Racing is different. In Italy most of the kids start racing from around eight years old. There is a category for the youngest ones before that. I go through all the classes, age by age, in the karting ladder from 6 to 16.

In some other countries you can start racing a bit earlier than here. Every country has its own differences, so check with your national karting authority and ask them for clear instructions before you plan anything.

And the age is only one side of it. The weight of the kart, the power and who else is on track matter a lot for a very young kid. I cover that in is karting safe for kids.

What is the ideal age to start karting?

For me the earliest age to start learning properly is five to six years old.

Why? Because when you’re that young the brain is very plastic. You absorb everything like a sponge. You don’t have the maturity to understand the concepts like you may have at 10, 11 or 12. But you build the muscle memory and you earn that sense of speed early on, and that is definitely better than doing it later on in life.

I started at about five and a half years old. I can’t remember exactly. And I believe it was the optimal time, because it gave me a full year of preparation before my first races in the baby kart. That was a great time to learn.

Alone on track, with space around. That is how the first days should look.

The first times in the kart, my dad was holding the kart from a leash. I wanted to go flat out. And I knew that if he let go I would have probably gone into the walls, because I didn’t know the controls yet. I didn’t know how to turn. I was that young.

So start with baby steps. What a kid of that age can work on is in karting for 6 to 8 year olds.

Is four or five too early?

Sometimes, yes. At four to five years old it can be too early, because the kid may not deal very well with the feeling of speed. I think that feeling develops more at six to seven.

But it’s not the same for every kid. My brother is 2 years younger than me. I insisted so much with my dad to go driving that he got intrigued, he asked to try it, and he jumped on the kart for the first time at just 4 years of age.

And I’ve noticed other kids as early as four to five getting started with no problem.

So I can’t tell you a number that works for every kid. What I can tell you is what to look at.

How do you know your kid is ready?

For me the biggest sign is that the kid is fearless. He drives without any sort of fear blocking him. He deals with the speed, and he is actually seeking the speed and the adrenaline.

And it’s not coming necessarily with age. You may have a kid of five who is fearless and has the sense of speed in his blood. I think that was my case. And you may have kids of 9, 10 or 11 who don’t have that courage yet. They may need to start a bit later.

The second sign is that it comes from him. He needs to crave it, as with any kind of passion.

How do you check that? My dad had a trick. After I tried the kart for the first couple of times, he intentionally didn’t mention karting anymore. He didn’t say “we’re never going karting anymore”. He just didn’t mention it, and he monitored my reaction. If the kid asks to go again, he’s in love with it. If he doesn’t ask, there’s no point to force it on him.

What did I do? I begged my dad to take me again.

To this day at BabyRace, when parents ask how to understand whether their kid is passionate or not, my dad tells them to try the same trick. Don’t mention karting for a few days or weeks and see if he begs you to get back on track. It works very well.

What can a kid learn at 5 to 7, and at 8 to 12?

From 5 to 7 they learn the basics of driving on a track, such as the race lines and the braking. The learning curve is still pretty steep, and the earlier you can get it the better.

But they will not master it as well as they will do between 8 and 12. Based on my experience, from five to seven they are still a bit young and they may not be able to apply exactly what you’re saying.

Think about it. A kid of that age doesn’t know exactly what speed or distance are. I did those things at school when I was 10 or 11. So if you talk to him about delta time, speed and distance, it’s quite confusing.

Between 8 and 12 is where I feel they learn the most. They have more experience and more maturity, so they absorb the information more. That period has its own post: karting for 8 to 12 year olds.

What mistakes do parents make with the starting age?

I see two, and they go in opposite directions.

The first one is taking the kid too soon, when he is still a bit afraid of speed, and not doing it in a safe way. If the kid has even a minor crash, nothing crazy, and he gets a traumatic experience out of it, that is going to affect him for a long time. Most kids start too fast and they get scared. You have to take it step by step.

The second one is the opposite. The kid copes with the speed, he wants to drive, and you prevent him from driving. You don’t give him the track time he is craving.

I understand there is money involved, and time, and all the commitments. But if you really want to give your child a shot, then give him a proper shot.

And don’t push him to race too early. Train first, so he builds confidence, and race when he is ready.

Does starting earlier guarantee success?

Yes and no. But mostly yes.

Is it better to start playing tennis at five years old or at 15? Clearly at five. You build the neural pathways in your brain, the muscle memory, the stamina. You start to shape yourself into the athlete that sport needs. Racing is no different.

You can’t buy experience. If you could, F1 drivers would have started racing directly in Formula 3 or Formula 2. That would have made a lot more financial sense. But you can’t, and that’s why they start karting as young as possible.

The “no” is that there is the equipment and there is the track time, and those take a lot of money and time.

And what about talent? I think talent is overrated. I’ve seen drivers that were terrible at the beginning turning into phenomenal drivers just by practicing more, or practicing better, than the other kids.

What if your kid starts at 9, 10 or 11?

Then he has to play catch up.

Not a single one of us drivers started on the same day or has done the same number of laps. Some started driving at 8 years old, others at 5. So we are all at different points along the learning curve.

Let me give you an example. Take two drivers of exactly the same age, say 11 years old. One has 476 days on track. At an average of 80 laps per day, that is 38,080 laps. The other one has 121 days, so 9,680 laps. They cannot drive the same lap time. Given the exact same kart and the exact same coaching, the kid with more laps will be faster.

I call this the experience gap.

One of the questions I get most from parents is “How do we make him faster?”. Mostly from the dads, at their son’s third race in Italy. So I ask: “How many races has he done here?”. He replies “I guess three”. And I ask: “Right. So how many races have the others done here?”.

We all want the reward fast. But the goal is simply to close that gap as quickly as possible. If someone is further ahead of you, you need to outwork them to catch up. That means laps, laps and laps. And high quality laps, because not all laps are made equal.

Does the age matter if it’s just for fun?

Much less. It all depends on the goal that the kid and the parents have.

If the goal is just fun, he could drive once a month, or even once a year. There is no rush.

If the kid really craves Formula 1 and the family has a way to support him, then the more practice the better. He needs to practice as much as possible, even up to five or six days a week. I know school is a thing. I know there are time and financial commitments.

That’s what the F1 drivers did. They all practiced a lot. I also practiced a lot, and I won a world championship.

And when does it go from fun to competition? It comes down to his internal motivation. The kid needs to want it more than everybody else.

Is it ever too late to start?

To enjoy it and to get good? Absolutely not.

Let me be honest though. If you start at 40, you will most likely not beat a kid who started at five. Kids have more time ahead of them. But a national or club level is achievable. I wrote about it in can adults start karting late.

So don’t look only at the birthday. Take him to a track, start with baby steps, and then stop mentioning karting for a few weeks. If he begs you to go back, you have your answer.

Frequently asked questions

What is the youngest age a kid can start karting?

There is no exact age and it depends on the country and on the track. In Italy you can go testing and training even at four or five years old. For me the earliest age to start learning properly is five to six.

What is the best age to start karting?

Five to six years old, if the kid wants it and is not afraid of the speed. I started at about five and a half and I believe it was the optimal time, because I had a full year of preparation before my first races.

Is 10 too old to start karting?

No. But the kids who started earlier have more laps, so there is an experience gap. You close it by driving more and by driving better laps.

How do I know if my child is ready for karting?

The biggest sign is that he is fearless and he is seeking the speed. And it has to come from him. Stop mentioning karting for a few days or weeks and see if he begs you to go back on track.

At what age can kids start racing karts?

It depends on the country. In Italy most of the kids start racing from around eight years old, with a category for the youngest ones before that. Check with your national karting authority.