Motorsport’s Reaction To The Corberi Incident

For those that haven’t seen by now, over the weekend the FIA World Karting Championship finale was held at the Lonato circuit in Italy, providing us with 3 championship showdowns for the FIA Academy Trophy class. Featuring drivers representing their country’s fighting for the title in the KZ and KZ2 gearbox classes. These are the toughest and fastest classes to race on the world karting stage (barring superkarts which compete on full size circuits).

The final gave us a number of firsts for the world finals with the first ever Israeli winner; Ariel Elkin winning the FIA academy trophy final. As well as Jeremy Iglesias winning the coveted KZ2 World Final which we will cover in another article.

The moment of the weekend however, which caught everyone’s attention was Luca Corberi during the KZ2 Final.

With motorsport being a high intensity sport, we often see tempers flair at all levels of racing. From club drivers being unhappy after losing a race to drivers like Sebastian Vettel shouting his anger towards another driver during his team radio. Although being a common occurrence in motorsport, the actions demonstrated by Luca Corberi breached a new limit. The 23-year-old Italian took the front bumper off his kart, walked to the edge of the track and threw it at the competitor who had ended his race, Paolo Ippolito. After the race, while still in full race gear, Corberi charged Ippolito in parc ferme, knocking him over and throwing fists him. His father, the owner of the Lonato circuit, also physically confronted and attacked the younger Ippolito.

The FIA has launched an immediate investigation into the incident, Italy’s governing body has indicated it will take whatever action is necessary and karting commission president and ex-Formula 1 driver Felipe Massa has promised “consequences” for both Luca and his father.

Corberi says he will accept whatever punishment is awarded because he told officials at the world championship to suspend him for his actions. He was later disqualified from the race by the stewards of the meeting, but a matter of formal suspension is something for the relevant FIA courts to decide upon.

In a public apology published on his Facebook page, Corberi said:

“There are no excuses to explain why I’ve done such a disgraceful act. This has been something I’ve never done in my 15 years of racing career, and I really hope it won’t be seen by anybody else in the future.

“After the race, once I’ve been called by the sporting judges, I’ve asked them to take my licence away because I was fully conscious about my irreparable mistakes. But as they showed me, they don’t have the power for doing it, it’s written in the international rules.

“So please, don’t be against them, they were just doing their work in the best way they could. For this reason, I’ve decided to not take part in any other motorsport competition for the rest of my life.

“That’s not self administered justice, it’s simply the right thing to do.”

Luca Corberi

Although what was committed was disrespectful to the racing community as a whole, Corberi has to be commended on his statement regarding the situation in fully acknowledging his actions and punishing himself possibly more than the FIA will punish him. With the adrenaline that flows through drivers during a race, these situations are not at all unheard of. Looking back at the history of Formula 1 with Nelson Piquet and Eliseo Salazar having a fight after a collision as well as the many fights witnessed in Nascar in previous decades.

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