The 2026 FIA Karting World Cup has concluded with victory for two of the brightest racing stars who delivered world-class performances to win every one of their heats, super heats and finals over the weekend.

Yuri Morelli in the OK-N category becomes the third ever winner of the title adding his name on the cup alongside 2024 winner Kyuho Lee and 2025 winner Manuel Scognamiglio. Morelli converted pole to three heat wins, a super heat win and a final victory to secure the title in spectacular style.

In OK-N Junior, the honours were awarded to Niccolò Perico who also delivered a perfect weekend winning every heat, his super heat and a cruise to victory in the final as the undoubted star of this World Cup. The AMG Petronas Mercedes Formula 1 team junior driver wins his first FIA Karting title and secures his position as one of the most exciting young drivers to watch.

John Han secured the 2026 Academy Junior Title after a tense final race which was ultimately won by Max Sulin of Finland. The Hong Kong driver’s points advantage heading into the final round allowed him to comfortably cruise to the chequered flag in second place and still secure the title with a 51 points gap to runner-up Domenico Coco.

Han’s Academy victory is the second FIA title he has collected in as many months after he won the 2026 FIA Karting Arrive and Drive Junior title in September.

OK-N

Super Heats

Heading into the final day of action at the FIA Karting World Cup, Cristian Blandino and Yuri Morelli were tied on a perfect 150 points with three heat wins each leaving the Super Heats this morning to unbreak the deadlock and determine the polesitter for the final race.

Morelli was first to defend his super heat lead and delivered a statement drive to cross the line over a second ahead of Manuel Scognamiglio who gained two places to stay well in contention this weekend to retain his 2025 title. Morelli’s super heat victory, along with a perfect record in the heats and his fastest time recorded in timed qualifying therefore guaranteed the Brazilian pole position in the final before Blandino contested his super heat.

The contest for the remaining front row position played out between Lamberto Ferrari and Cristian Blandino who held a 14-point advantage in the intermediate classification standings. Ferrari’s first lap overtake into the lead left him just two points behind Blandino in the standings, relying on Blandino to drop a further place if he was to dent Blandino’s perfect run of heat wins this weekend.

Jercan’s gain of five positions and into third provided the most hope for Ferrari but in a final charge to retain his run of victories, Blandino regained control of the heat to take the chequered flag and secure a second position start for the final alongside Morelli setting up a blockbuster finale between the two so far unbeaten drivers in OK-N this weekend.

Final

Off the line Blandino had the better start to claim the lead by the first corner, but into the second lap a three-way scrap for the lead ensued with Morelli, Blandino and Ferrari all aware of the finality of this race to determine the 2026 World Cup winner.

Morelli immediately turned offensive to regain the lead, unwilling to allow a gap to build to the Italian duo of Ferrari and Blandino. 2025 winner Scognamiglio initially fell down the order but soon recovered into fourth to join his compatriots in their quest to keep the World Cup Italian in 2026.

Morelli’s tactics paid off for the Brazilian as he found pace and eased into the race, allowing the Italians behind to choose their challenger to him. Following an exchange of positions, Scognamiglio emerged as the Italian to mount the strongest challenge. However, by this point a two second gap had already built to Morelli, presenting a mountain to climb if anyone is to unseat him from the top step of the podium.

Scognamiglio and Morelli raced through the middle section of the race as the quickest drivers on track, matching each other’s sectors and leaving the field behind to watch if the World Cup would have a new or a returning name etched onto the trophy.

For polesitter and unbeaten heat winner Morelli, the time to Scognamiglio never dropped and as he rounded the final corners, he could taste the World Cup glory ahead of him as he secured his status as the third ever FIA Karting World Cup winner in OK-N. After a faultless and assured performance all weekend, Morelli had earnt his place in the FIA Karting history books and inherited the title Scognamiglio behind him won so memorably in Cremona last year.

For Blandino the final race turned into the first hurdle of the weekend he couldn’t leap over. After losing control of the race at the start he wasn’t able to recover and spent most of his race in a battle for third with Lamberto Ferrari, ultimately won by Ferrari who completed the podium positions.

Reigning Academy Trophy Senior winner Albie Lapper, who scraped into the final, made it up into 28th position with a gain of 11 spots whilst Giuseppe Piccolo’s race ended early for a technical infringement after he had been enjoying a decent run in the final.

Yuri Morelli, CRG Racing Team, said:

“I have no words to describe this feeling, it’s a unique feeling, I think I’ve never felt anything like that before. For me the race was pretty automatic, I was focused on the main objective which was winning the race which was hard but I tried my best and thankfully everything went right”

Top 3 in the FIA Karting World Cup (OK-N)

1. Yuri Morelli (BRA, CRG Racing Team)

2. Manuel Scognamiglio (ITA, Pantano by Dam)

3. Lamberto Ferrari (ITA, ASD Monster K Factory Team)

OK-N Junior

Super Heats

Niccolò Perico, the only junior driver to score a perfect 150 points through the heats, occupied the Super Heat pole position and led throughout the super heat, only facing light pressure from Elton Hedfors who kept within a second throughout the heat. Perico’s super heat win and unrivalled run of form this weekend therefore guaranteed him pole position for the final as the best placed driver in the OK-N Junior category.

In the battle for the remaining front row position, Luigi D’Ascoli faced the threat of a surging John Mclellan who gained seven positions to challenge for the super heat win. D’Ascoli ultimately managed to keep the American driver at bay with a half second gap over the line to confirm an Italian front-row lockout for the final.

Friday’s polesitter, Schelvis Moron, delivered the drive of the morning, making up ground in the Super Heat to finish in third position after starting in tenth place. His disqualification from his first heat set his weekend back but his successful day yesterday with a win and second place resulted in a ninth-place start for the final.

Final

When the Italian front row showdown commenced, both drivers raced fairly and cleanly over the opening laps of the deciding race for the junior World Cup honours. John Mclellan triggered the strongest challenge from behind and began to climb into the top five during the early laps, with the leading positions ahead of him unchanged.

Mclellan was soon joined by Troy Ferguson as they commenced an American push through the field with both drivers making up a series of places to quickly occupy fourth and fifth by the halfway point. Ferguson, in particular, began to deliver what will become a memorable and skilful performance from his 13th place start on the grid.

At the sharp end of the race, Perico, D’Ascoli and Hedfors initially broke away with the American tussle for fourth unfolding allowing Perico to steadily build a buffer from his nearest challenger. This weekend Perico has delivered an exemplary performance which no other driver could come close to, from qualifying in third position to his heat pace and final dominance, he has shown why the young driver is a Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team junior driver.

Perico went on to cross the line with over five seconds to his nearest rival, an incredible display of race pace that will catch the eye of the motor sport world. As the Italian national anthem rang out across the circuit, the assembled crowd were sure to have witnessed a rising star of the sport and one of the most exciting prospects in karting.

Behind Perico, attention had turned to the final spot of the podium where Troy Ferguson had sliced the gap to Hedfors and made the crucial move into third position with Mclellan following his coattails. The gap to D’Ascoli was seemingly a challenge too far for Ferguson but in the closing laps he found a burst of pace, similar to the final lap push he unleashed in Malaysia last year to win the Arrive and Drive World Cup, and he successfully gained second position on track.

However, a post-race front fairing penalty meant Ferguson’s second step on the podium was sadly short lived as D’Ascoli regained second and Mclellan was promoted to the final step of the podium.

Elsewhere in the final, Friday polesitter Schelvis Moron made contact with Titz to prematurely end his race whilst Sulpizio and Moehring were the other big beneficiaries of the final race to end within the top ten. The biggest gain of the day however went to Italian driver Raffaele Mini who climbed a total of 15 places.

Niccolò Perico, FIA Karting World Cup Winner (OK-N Junior), said:

“Super happy about it, I don’t even have words about it. It was amazing I just really want to thank everyone that has supported me this weekend. All the team, KR, IAME, my mechanics, my family, Mercedes. We’ll see what we can do at the next one but for now we’ll be about this one.”

Top 3 in the FIA Karting World Cup (OK-N Junior)

1. Niccolò Perico (ITA, KR)

2. Luigi D’Ascoli (ITA, Modena)

3. John Mclellan (USA, Ward)

Academy Junior

Heats

Heading into the final set of heats, Domenico Coco held the advantage in the standings but needed a perfect run on Sunday as well as a mishap from Han to stand a realistic chance of closing the 38-point gap to Han and winning the Academy title on home soil today.

Sensing the pressure that Coco was placing on him this weekend, Han strived to put himself in a strong position for the final, immediately passing Gorlero Pizarro in the final heat to take the win and bring himself into second place in the provisional standings awaiting Coco’s attempt.

Coco initially carried his strong run of form this weekend into the super heats and quickly closed in on Grignet and into the heat lead in the second lap. The Italian driver’s attempt to pull away was hampered by a dual challenge for the lead from Sulin and Shimbashi who were both in contention for top five grid positions for the final.

A last lap sprint to the line ended with Shimbashi taking the chequered flag ahead of Sulin and Coco in third. Coco’s third place finish in the heat left him level on points with both Gorlero Pizarro and Han in the standings leaving qualifying practice to determine the final grids.

Gorlero Pizarro would therefore take pole for the final alongside Han on the front row ahead of Coco and Max Sulin on the second row. Han’s final heat victory was ultimately crucial to hand him the advantage heading into the final race where he can seal the deal and win the 2026 Academy Junior title.

Final

Off the line Han delivered one of the starts of the weekend to sweep past Gorlero Pizarro in the opening corner and into firm control of both the final and the title race. In the opening laps the biggest drama however came from Zoltan Coigny, first round winner and third position in the standings, who dramatically retired on lap four to leave only Coco as Han’s rival to the title this year.

Max Sulin occupied second position, keeping Coco at bay from the lead, but as the gap to Han significantly reduced the Hong Kong driver lost the lead of the race to the Finnish driver leaving him unprotected from Coco behind.

Coco, however, in turn, faced the pace of earlier heat winner Shimbashi who continued to gain places and entered the podium spots by the halfway point of the race at the expense of the home hope.

It was the contest for the top ten places however which attracted the most on track action. Juozaitis unleashed impressive race pace along with Kevin Pentell, but the charge of the day belonged to William Nielsen who banked an impressive 18 overtakes to ultimately finish in ninth place.

As the race neared its conclusion, Han sat comfortably in second place knowing a clean end to the race would be more than enough to secure the 2026 title. Keeping to within a second of Sulin, Han began to sense danger as Shimbashi approached behind, the Hong Kong driver keen to end his incredible weekend on a high, triggering his defensive end to the race.

As the chequered flag fell it was a first Academy Trophy race win for Max Sulin capping off an incredible weekend for the Finnish driver who finished half a second clear of John Han who kept Shimbashi at bay to occupy the second spot of the podium.

Han’s second place finish was, in the end, more than enough to win the 2026 FIA Karting Academy Trophy, ending the season with an impressive 51 points gap to his nearest rival, Coco.

John Han, 2026 FIA Karting Academy Trophy Junior winner, said:

“It’s a very amazing 2026 for me, having three podiums in three races and managing to win the championship!”

Top 3 in the final round of the 2026 FIA Karting Academy Trophy Junior

1. Max Sulin (FIN)

2. John Han (HKG)

3. Takeru Shimbashi (JPN)

Top 3 in the 2026 FIA Karting Academy Trophy Junior

1. John Han (HKG) 208 points

2. Domenico Coco (ITA) 157 points

3. Takeru Shimbashi (JPN) 109 points

FIA Karting next returns for the 2026 Mondokart.com FIA Karting World Championship (OK, Junior) in La Conca, Italy over 5-8 November 2026.