The Birel ART brand and the Racing Team are approaching the 2018 season with great ambitions after having learned the lessons of the 2017 season and its many positive points. Technically and organisationally, everything is in place for the great Italian manufacturer to return to a long tradition of victories on all terrains.
Designed in the light of the racing experience from recent seasons, the new Birel ART and Ricciardo Kart S9 chassis were recently homologated for the period 2018-2020 and have already confirmed their potential in testing to lead drivers to success. The development phase continues on schedule until the opening competitions of the year.
The Birel ART Racing Team has changed its face with the arrival of a great Karting figure at its head, replacing the much appreciated Rickard Kaell Franchini. "Nicolas Todt and I are particularly pleased to welcome our new Team Manager, Davide Foré," said Ronni Sala, President of Birel ART. "The incredible experience from more than 30 years of racing by the five-time World Champion, his close knowledge of racing and his still-intact desire to win made Davide Foré a recruit of choice for our team."
"It's a source of great pride for me to join a brand as prestigious as Birel ART,” confided Davide Foré. "It's also a very exciting new challenge which I'm going to meet with great enthusiasm. I am convinced that we have beautiful pages in the history of Karting to write together with Birel ART. I am determined to use all my experience as a driver, a technician and a driver manager in order to succeed in this great challenge. I know that I can count on the team to gradually take the measure of my task."
An intrinsic part of the quest for victory, the 2018 lineup of Birel ART Racing Team drivers has no shortage of assets. The superb performances of Marijn Kremers (NLD) in KZ and Riccardo Longhi (ITA) in KZ2 last year will make them the team's stalwarts this season alongside Alexander Dahlberg (SWE). Rick Dreezen (BEL) will also defend the colours of Birel ART under the banner of the KSW Birel Austria team, while Kremers will also have an OK programme.
Luigi Coluccio (ITA) will be a rookie to watch in OK alongside Valentino Fritsch (DEU), Gustav Grinbergas (POL), Matey Kacosky (CZE), Samuel Lupien (CAN) and Marco Settimo (ITA), within Team Kubica. Francesco Pizzi (ITA), Thomas Ten Brinke (NLD) and Thomas Nepveu (CAN) will embody the hopes of the brand in OK-Junior.
The Birel ART Racing Team will race a comprehensive programme of international events in 2018 which will begin at the end of January with the WSK Champions Cup in Adria. The greatest titles in Europe and worldwide, in all categories, are in focus for the famous Lissone brand in the CIK-FIA European Championship and World Championship, as well as in the different series of the WSK and the German Championship for some of the drivers, and classics like the Winter Cup.