From karting to cars: Why PRO SR1 could be your next step

At some point, every young karting driver and their family has to work out what comes next.

Formula 4 is the obvious answer for many. But it isn’t the only one, particularly if the longer-term ambition is GT racing, prototypes or endurance racing.

There’s also a new generation arriving from a completely different direction. Sim racers are proving that virtual experience can translate into real cars, provided they get the right opportunity to learn.

This is where we see a role for PRO SR1 in Radical Cup Scandinavia.

The idea is quite simple. Put young drivers in a proper racing car, give them plenty of seat time and surround them with teams and experienced drivers who can help them learn.

Then let them race.

A very different world from karting

The move from karting into cars is a big one.

There’s more weight and more movement. Braking is different. Drivers have to understand what the tyres are doing and start learning how changes to the car affect its behaviour. Data and communication with engineers become part of the weekend.

Then there’s aero.

The Radical SR1 is a lightweight, purpose-built sports prototype with a sequential gearbox and genuine aerodynamic downforce. Radical developed it specifically as the entry point to its racing range.

There aren’t layers of electronic assistance covering up what the driver is doing. If you get something right, you feel it. Get it wrong and you generally know about that too.

For a young driver, that’s useful.

You’re learning car control and racecraft in a car that rewards good technique, while getting your first experience of something that behaves like a proper aero racing car.

Different drivers, same classroom

Our PRO SR1 field this season already shows that there isn’t one particular type of driver the class is built around.

Charlie Jonasson is taking the traditional karting route.

Charlie was still competing in the Swedish Karting Championship in 2025. This year he has made his first steps into car racing with Vortex Performance.

That means almost everything is new.

Race starts in a car. Longer races. Working with data. Understanding setup changes. Learning where you can place the car when you’re racing wheel-to-wheel rather than simply chasing a lap time.

At Ljungbyhed he also got a very good reference in Erik Poulsen.

Poulsen came through international karting, represented Sweden in the FIA Karting Academy and is now racing internationally in Formula 4 with STEP Motorsport.

He also raced an SR1 at Ljungbyhed.

Poulsen won the PRO SR1 class, but the interesting part for us was having drivers at different stages of their development racing the same machinery.

For Charlie, it meant being able to compare himself directly with a driver already competing internationally in F4. For Poulsen, the Radical offered something quite different from his usual single-seater.

Then we have Marcus Idrén.

Marcus arrived at Ljungbyhed with very little real-world car racing experience but a background in sim racing. He was quick almost immediately and finished as high as second in PRO SR1 during the weekend.

Three young drivers. Very different backgrounds. All learning something from the same car.

The sim racing route isn’t theoretical anymore

Chris Lulham is probably the obvious example.

After karting and a brief spell in Formula 4, Lulham spent several years concentrating heavily on sim racing with Team Redline.

When he returned to real-world competition in 2024, he chose Radical Cup UK.

He won the championship.

The following year Max Verstappen selected him for his real-world racing programme and Lulham moved into GT3. He now races a Mercedes-AMG GT3 in GT World Challenge Europe for Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing.

That’s an exceptional career trajectory and obviously not something anyone can promise a young sim racer.

But it does make the point.

There are more routes into professional motorsport than there used to be, and Radical racing can work for drivers arriving from very different backgrounds.

Where can SR1 lead?

For somebody interested in sports cars and prototypes, there is a fairly natural progression within Radical racing.

You can start in SR1 and move into the faster SR3. From there, Radical Cup Europe introduces international competition and circuits such as Spa-Francorchamps, Paul Ricard, Nürburgring, Mugello and Barcelona.

Beyond Radical, the obvious direction is GT racing, prototypes or endurance competition.

But we don’t think a driver needs to decide all of that at 14 or 15.

Poulsen is a good example. He is racing Formula 4 internationally while also getting experience in a Radical.

There is nothing preventing a young driver from doing both.

If Formula 4 is the target, experience in an SR1 isn’t wasted. Neither is it wasted if GT3, prototypes or endurance racing eventually become the goal.

At this stage, mileage and learning matter more than putting a label on the destination.

The budget matters too

Anyone who has spent time around junior motorsport knows how quickly the numbers grow.

Once a driver leaves karting, families have to decide where the available budget will produce the most useful experience. A programme that looks good on paper doesn’t help much if the budget only stretches to a handful of test days.

This is one of the reasons we think SR1 deserves consideration.

Radical designed the car as an accessible entry into purpose-built racing machinery, and the running costs can make it possible to build a programme around actual seat time rather than simply getting onto the grid.

Testing. Coaching. Data work. Racing.

For a young driver still learning, doing more of those things is rarely a bad investment.

It also doesn’t have to replace Formula 4. An SR1 programme can come before F4, run alongside selected single-seater events, or form the beginning of a sports-car route in its own right.

The answer depends on the driver.

Learning how to work with a team

There is another transition after karting that gets talked about less.

A young driver has to learn how to be useful to an engineer.

Saying “the car has no grip” doesn’t tell a team very much.

Where does it lose grip? On entry or exit? Under braking? At what point in the corner? What changed compared with the previous session?

That communication has to be learned.

So does reading data properly, comparing telemetry, understanding video and recognising when the problem is the setup and when the driver simply needs to change something.

Our teams can work through that process with young drivers throughout a weekend.

There are also experienced drivers in the Radical Cup Scandinavia paddock who are happy to look at data, discuss a corner or give a younger driver a reference.

It’s a useful environment in which to learn because the experience level varies enormously. A young driver taking their first steps in cars can be sharing a weekend with somebody who has hundreds of race starts.

So, what comes after karting?

There isn’t one answer anymore.

For some drivers it will still be Formula 4. For others, the destination is GTs or prototypes. Sim racing is now producing drivers capable of making the transition into real-world competition as well.

What young drivers need in all of those cases is experience.

They need laps. They need to race other cars. They need to make mistakes and understand why they made them. They need to work with data and engineers and gradually build a bigger toolbox.

That’s what we want PRO SR1 to be about.

If you’re coming out of karting, looking to make the jump from sim racing or simply considering the options for a first season in cars, come and have a look at the SR1.

Better still, come and drive one.