FIA Karting Arrive & Drive European Championship on Danske Gas fuel. First edition, Słomczyn

Słomczyn lies less than an hour from Warsaw, between fields and forest, and for three days in July it was the capital of European karting. A blue gateway bearing the words FIA Karting stood over the entrance to the paddock, the tents of teams from Europe and three other continents spread out along the lanes, and the 1,208-metre circuit hosted, for the first time in its history, a European Championship of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. It was the only round of the season: a single weekend decided the whole title.

The format was new and surprisingly democratic. Arrive & Drive means just that: arrive, and drive. Drivers bring no equipment of their own. Everyone receives identical, brand-new karts – Kosmic chassis with Vortex engines, prepared by a single technical team – drawn by lot before the start, and over the weekend the engines pass from driver to driver. The bigger budget does not win. The better driver does.

The Senior class saw 22 drivers from 15 countries on the grid; the Junior class, 21 from 14. The European field was joined by guests from Japan, Mexico and Kenya, and among the drivers was the first Icelander in the history of FIA Karting. At stake were the European titles and a place at the World Cup in Malaysia, where in November the best from three continents will meet.

When every kart is the same, the result comes down to details – including those that cannot be seen from the stands. Fuel is one of them: a single batch for the entire field, with identical parameters in every tank, dispensed only on site and under the supervision of the stewards. That batch was supplied by Danske Gas. The order came from the FIA.

Sunday's finals belonged to the hosts. In the Senior class the whole podium was Polish: seventeen-year-old Kacper Turoboyski became European champion, ahead of Łukasz Jezierski and Adrian Potępa. In the Junior class the title went to thirteen-year-old Maksymilian Piątek, half a second ahead of Błażej Kostrzewa, with Portugal's Rui Martins third. Two European titles in a single afternoon – on the circuit where many of them had learnt to drive.

For us, this is a natural continuation of the road we have travelled since 2024: from the World Rally Championship, through the European Championship, to karting, where most careers in motorsport begin. Fuel for the youngest drivers must meet exactly the same requirements as fuel for champions: consistency, purity, documentation of every batch. In Słomczyn, in a single tank, the two things we like best came together – precision, and the beginning of a road.