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Final race of the year for the Lenovo Kalì Kart team, competing this weekend at the Lonato circuit for the Trofeo delle Industrie, with the goal of continuing technical development and driver evaluations ahead of the 2026 season.

This prestigious trophy has reached its 53rd edition and its roll of honour includes many champions who later moved into car racing and even Formula 1, such as Alex Zanardi, Giancarlo Fisichella, and Jarno Trulli.

Team Lenovo will compete with 4 drivers: newcomers Zack Zhu in OKJ and Trofim Krotov in OKN, who will join Alex Mrozik (OKN) and Dario El Malki in OKN Junior. Over 250 drivers will take part in this final international meeting of the season, and Lenovo Kalì Kart’s goal will be to continue integrating the new drivers and accumulate mileage with the 2026 chassis ahead of the first full season under the Lenovo colors.

At the same time, after two near-podiums in the last two WSK races, there is a strong desire to end the season with a podium finish—and the potential, in this regard, seems very realistic. This week’s tests provided excellent feedback, and the weather is expected to remain good until the final day, allowing for more consistent work for both technicians and drivers.

The event schedule includes timed practice on Friday morning, followed by the qualifying heats, which will continue through Saturday. The final day on Sunday will feature the pre-finals in the morning and the Finals in the afternoon, broadcast live on the promoter’s website (www.trofeodelleindustrie.it).

On Sunday, November 23rd, the Lonato circuit will host the last of the three WSK Final events, which will close the long 2026 International karting season. This important meeting will welcome as many as 400 drivers divided into seven categories: MINI U10, MINI Gr3, OKJ, OK, OKNJ, OKN and KZ2.

The Lenovo Kalì Kart Team will be competing with 5 official drivers: in MINI U10 with the pair composed of Filip Stec and Filippos Troulis, in OKJ with the American Julian Rivera, in OKN with Aleksander Mrozik, and in OK with Davide Bottaro. The Italian driver is particularly anticipated after his excellent debut in Cremona, and here on the home track of the CRG Factory he will certainly be one of the drivers to watch closely. This weekend’s race will be another step toward 2026 for the Lenovo Kalì Kart Team, as part of a process of integrating new drivers and enhancing technical activities within the team. But it will not be the last commitment of 2026; in fact, after the race in Lonato, the team will also remain to take part in the historic Trofeo delle Industrie, making the most of every opportunity to strengthen all technical areas before the winter break.

Returning to this weekend’s event, the first free practice sessions are already underway, while qualifying practice is scheduled for Friday morning. This will be followed by an intense program of heats between Friday afternoon and Saturday, leading up to Sunday’s final day with the Finals.

Live Streaming and Live Timing will be available on the promoter’s official website (www.wskarting.it) while updates and content from the paddock will, as usual, be published on the team’s social media channels.

It was a very positive weekend for the Lenovo Kalì Kart Team at the Cremona circuit for the 2nd and penultimate round of the WSK Final. Davide Bottaro, who joined the Lenovo squad on the eve of the event, was one of the major protagonists in the OK category. He took 4th place in his Qualifying Group, won a heat during Saturday’s qualifying phases, and dominated Sunday morning’s Super Heat. The Italian driver confirmed himself among the strongest in the Final as well, but starting from the outside lane didn’t help him in the early stages of the race. After a very intense run, he missed the podium by just a few thousandths, despite having it in his hands until the final lap, and finished 4th. Beyond the sporting result, which places the Lenovo Kalì Kart Team colors right at the top of the direct drive top class, the weekend was extremely valuable for testing and developing the Kalì Kart chassis with an eye already on 2026. The entire event took place under stable weather conditions, and many useful kilometers were completed to prepare for next season, with reliable feedback and direct comparison against the strongest teams and drivers in the category.

Back to the sporting side, it’s worth mentioning the positive weekend of Filip Stec in the MINI U10 category. He continues to learn in these high-level meetings, especially looking ahead to his full-time program in 2026. The Polish driver finished the Final in 14th place with an excellent race pace. Still in MINI, Filippo Troulis was very unlucky. After a difficult qualifying, he was involved in an incident on Saturday and had to withdraw early from the event. Lastly, Vincenzo Salierno qualified for the Final, showing major improvements throughout the weekend.

Team Technical Manager Mariano De Faveri commented: “Davide did an excellent job and deserved the podium. But beyond the podium missed by such a tiny margin, we’re very satisfied with the weekend overall and with the technical information we gathered on the 2026 chassis. We also saw many positive signs in MINI, and our work program for this end of the season is progressing smoothly and according to plan. Next week in Lonato we will also have an OKJ driver, adding another piece to our approach plan for next season.”

The preparation phase for the 2026 season continues this weekend for the Lenovo Kalì Kart Team, which will take part in the 2nd round of the WSK Final Cup at the Cremona circuit. The most important news the team brings this week is the arrival of Davide Bottaro in the top OK class, following the Italian driver’s move from the CRG team, with which he raced up to the FIA World Championship in Sweden, to the Lenovo team. This internal decision by CRG aims to carry out, together with Davide, a technical and organizational preparation program for the team ahead of next season, and currently foresees Davide’s stay with the Lenovo team until the end of the season.

Alongside Bottaro, competing in the MINI category will be Polish driver Filip Stec and Greek driver Filippos Troulis, both of whom were very fast in the first race at Franciacorta and are aiming for a strong result this weekend. In the OKN Junior category, the team will instead be represented by Vincenzo Salierno. The weekend’s schedule includes free practice until Thursday evening, while Friday will mark the start of the official part of the event with qualifying practice and the first elimination heats, which will continue into Saturday. The key day will be Sunday, with the Super Heats in the morning and the Finals in the afternoon.

Updates from the track will be posted on the team’s social media channels, while Live Timing will be available on the website www.wskarting.it

This week, from October 22 to 26, the Franciacorta circuit will host Round 1 of the WSK Final Series. For the official Kalì Kart team, this will be the first race featuring the new livery of title sponsor Lenovo, and therefore also the first official appearance under its new name: Lenovo Kalì Kart Team, as listed in the official Entry List.

The WSK Final Series consists of three events: after this opening round in Franciacorta, Round 2 will take place in Cremona on November 9, and the concluding race will be held at Lonato on November 23. The official Kalì Kart team, led on track by technical director Mariano de Faveri, will use this prestigious international end-of-season series — which brings together the most important teams and drivers in international karting — to finalize its driver lineup for the upcoming season. Four drivers will compete in this first event: Filippo Troulis (Greece) and Filip Stec (Poland) in MINI U10, Vincenzo Salierno in OKN Junior, and Ilya Berezkin (Russia) in OK, the top “direct drive” category.

The event will come alive on Friday, with the end of free practice sessions, followed by qualifying and the first heats. Saturday will feature more qualifying races, while on Sunday, the Super Heats and Finals will take place in the early afternoon. Over 350 drivers are expected to participate, and the weather forecast predicts stable, dry conditions. Fans can follow the event on the official WSK website (www.wskarting.it), with Live Timing, Live Streaming, and access to all results and rankings.

Marco Angeletti, CRG’s marketing manager and coordinator of the Lenovo project, introduced this first race in Lenovo colors following the partnership announcement last September: “This weekend’s race carries emotional significance beyond the sporting aspect. We are excited and proud to bring to the world of karting a brand that is a Global Partner of Formula 1 and deeply involved in motorsport in general. We’re working toward building a top-level 2026 season, and these WSK end-of-year races are an excellent testing ground to gradually integrate new technical staff members and, above all, new drivers, who will play a central role in this project in partnership with Lenovo. The goal is to create a pipeline and an Academy to support the most deserving drivers in their growth journey, not only in karting but also in motorsport overall. At this Franciacorta event, we’ll have four drivers — including two in MINI U10, which will be one of the core categories in our future strategy, along with our commitment to OKJ and OK in FIA Karting competitions. In the upcoming races, we’ll expand to six drivers, covering all Under 16 categories, which are the focus of our project. We can’t wait to begin this ambitious and exciting journey with Lenovo — a journey that officially starts this weekend.”

Line-Up

Filippo Troulis (Greece) – MINI U10
Filip Stec (Poland) – MINI U10
Vince Salierno (Italy) – OKN Junior
Ilya Berezkin (Russia) – OK

WSK Final Calendar

Round 1 – Franciacorta (October 26)
Round 2 – Cremona (November 9)
Round 3 – Lonato (November 16)

After the announcement of the multi-year partnership between Kalì Kart and the new title sponsor Lenovo, the management of the historic CRG brand is working to define the 2026 drivers’ line-up of the team, which will be dedicated to the under-16 junior categories: Mini, OKNJ, OKJ, and OK. The racing program will include participation in all FIA Karting events (European Championship and World Championship for OK and OKJ classes), as well as a structure that will be active in Italy for the Mini U10 / Gr3 and OKN Junior categories.

The Lenovo Kalì Kart team will be a true Academy: the selected drivers will have access to competitive technical equipment and a professional staff, in line with the standards of a Factory team. The program shared by Lenovo and Kalì Kart will also include strong coaching support, both for athletic preparation and for communication and personal management training. Lenovo, Global Partner of F1, aims to build a concrete bridge between karting and motorsport, supporting the selected drivers from an educational perspective even before the financial one.

To be fully prepared for the 2026 season, the management of Kalì Kart and CRG has reset the collaborations with the drivers involved in the first part of 2025, in order to build a team aligned with the new project’s objectives. At the beginning of September, the partnerships with the Zvarich brothers were terminated, following the earlier conclusion of collaborations with Joel Taipale and David Moscardi before the summer break.

In the coming weeks, several announcements about the new drivers are expected, and the final races of the season, such as the WSK Final Cup, will be used to finalize the 2026 line-up. The team will likely consist of 2 OKJ drivers and 2 OK drivers for international competitions, plus 4 MINI drivers and 2 OKN Junior drivers for national races. The official presentation of the Lenovo Kalì Kart team is scheduled for January 2026, following the experiences and results of this final part of the season.

As part of the multi-year partnership between LENOVO and the CRG Group, announced on Tuesday, September 2nd in Milan, the new official name of the Kalì Kart Factory Team was also unveiled: from now on, it will appear in all official Entry Lists as Lenovo Kalì Kart Team.

The IT giant, Global Partner of F1, will become the Main Sponsor of the Kalì Kart team, helping raise the technical, organizational, and performance standards of the squad. The goal is to implement new processes in data acquisition and processing, as well as to provide the team with a budget to support the drivers who will be selected for the 2026 Line Up. Lenovo’s project also includes the creation of a training Academy to support the growth of drivers from karting to higher categories of Motorsport.

Lenovo will be the Title Sponsor of a team that immediately aims to position itself among the top teams in international karting, thanks to a strong technical leadership under the coordination of Mariano De Faveri. A key element will also be the partnership with TM for engines, along with the arrival of a pool of new technicians to strengthen the team in several strategic areas.

The Lenovo Kalì Kart Team will be a “premium” squad, equipped with prestigious logistical resources, and will exclusively manage under-16 drivers in the Mini, Junior, and OK categories. The sporting program will focus on FIA races and the most important international meetings, while also including a division to introduce younger drivers in the Mini and OKN Junior categories within national championships in Italy. Lenovo will select certain team drivers to support them through its Academy program, also covering aspects such as athletic preparation, coaching, and educational support, given that most of the drivers study online.

Alberto Spinelli of LENOVO emphasized the goals of the sponsorship agreement with the official Kalì Kart team:
“Our goal is to support an Academy in karting, which will serve as the natural foundation for our initiatives and partnerships in Motorsport, including F1. CRG and Kalì Kart have already produced many champions now in F1, from Lewis Hamilton to Max Verstappen and, most recently, Gabriel Bortoleto. Gabriel himself enthusiastically welcomed our initiative with a video message during the presentation evening of the agreement. Kalì Kart will be a platform where we will bring our technological know-how and enhance the technical staff to quickly become one of the most authoritative karting Academies, while also achieving significant sporting results that will allow us to support our drivers in their transition to cars. We already have a list of ambitious drivers under evaluation with the Kalì Kart management, and soon the first official announcements will be made regarding the race program for the end of the season and for 2026.”

The official Kalì Kart team has confirmed, in this first part of the season, both the technical value and the potential of the 2025 racing chassis—and is now preparing to play a leading role in the second half of the season.

With the conclusion of a double race weekend at the Cremona track—the WSK Euro Series on July 6 and Round 4 of the Italian Championship on July 13, featuring over 320 drivers—it’s time to take stock, both technically and competitively, before the summer break.

From a technical standpoint, the full range of chassis—from those developed for the Mini categories (TGroup) to the ones used in the OK classes—have confirmed two key goals set by the technical team: versatility in all track conditions and ease of driving. From the cold at the start of the year to the scorching heat in Sarno, from technical tracks like Viterbo to the recent high-speed experience in Cremona, the Kalì Kart chassis have consistently shown great adaptability, both to different track conditions and to various types of tires (option and prime).

From a sporting perspective, the team likely harvested less than it deserved, but still achieved many notable results. These include standout performances from Ilia Berezkin in OK and OK-N, winner of the Margutti Trophy, 6th place at the WSK Euro in OK, and a podium finish at Sarno in the Italian Championship (OK-N). Also impressive is the steady growth of Marat Zvarich, consistently among the fastest in OKN Junior, as well as his younger brother Max in Mini U10, who has consistently placed in the top 5 in qualifying and top 10 in races over the past few events.

Looking ahead, starting in September, the team will focus on preparing for the FIA World Cup for OKN and OKN Junior, set to take place in Cremona on September 28, followed by the season-ending WSK Final races. The second part of the season will also be key in revising the driver lineup with an eye toward 2026, when the team will shift its primary focus to FIA Karting championships.

Kalì Kart, a brand owned by CRG, continues to grow its official team, which will work closely alongside CRG’s racing division. Kalì Kart will concentrate especially on youth categories—Mini, Junior, and OK—with drivers under 16 years of age. As part of this strategic focus, the decision was made not to pursue a KZ program, which will instead be supported by partner teams such as Jorge Pescador’s Spanish team and other brand importers.

For more information about Kalì Kart’s activities, visit the official website www.kalikart.com and follow the brand on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok (@Kali Kart Official).