Last year during the FIA’s KZ Karting World Championship event, things got a little bit Saturday Night Special when Luca Corberi tangled with Paulo Ippolito, sending Corberi off the track and binning his TonyKart 401S. Corberi then went nuclear, launching into a rage at his competitor. That’s pretty common when you’ve been given the chrome horn, I’ve seen it time and time again in professional sports. After crossing the track multiple times, throwing his bumper at Ippolito, and physically attacking the other karter in parc ferme, he was handed a 15-year ban from any FIA racing event.
An FIA tribunal was called to judge Corberi’s actions last month, and issued the decision on Monday. Their official notice confirms that Corberi’s actions breached multiple Articles of the FIA Statutes, Code of Good Conduct, and Karting World Championship Sporting Regulations. They also declared “he is fully and completely guilty.”
As a result of his angry actions, Corberi was retroactively disqualified from the 2020 World Championship. He is also disqualified from competition participation in any event hosted by the FIA, and holding any position or duty “on behalf of the FIA and/or within a body of the FIA.”
Listen, I’m not saying what he did was right. I’m not saying he didn’t deserve some kind of retribution for his actions. But what I am saying is that this is probably a bit heavy handed by the FIA. The 23-year-old racer had been running karts since he was eight years old. By taking away his karting license, he’s been handed more than just a ban from the sport, he’s been banned from his position in the world, and his livelihood.
NASCAR literally encourages shit like this.
Name a sporting event that isn’t better with a little fighting. Baseball? Football? Hell, Hockey is just a street fight with knives on your feet. Corberi threw his kart’s front bumper, which probably weighs about one pound. Then he rushed his competitor in the paddock with both of them still fully suited, booted, and helmeted. Could he have gotten hurt? Sure. Could any racer get hurt on track far worse? Absolutely.
If this had happened at a 3/8ths mile dirt oval, he’d have been carried out of the stadium on the shoulders of the fans.
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