To start at the end, the parts that you might want to exclude because they are difficult to measure and control are some of the very parts that are being selected, you could end up with the worst of both worlds this way.
I confess my experience is limited to kids karting, this world is very different in France to the UK, the UK being many times nearer what one would like. But IMO they both share the same fundemental problem, this is that it is rarely the best young drivers that come to the front, instead it is the best parents, in the sense of those with the most influence and or money. The paradox is that with the success of British drivers, in F1 particularly, the aspirations of parents become greater, the costs spiral even more and ultimately the gene pool for finding the best drivers will get smaller, the ultimate conclusion of which is fewer top level drivers and less interest in karting. If you want to see this in practice, just look at France, where this downward part of the spiral has already resulted in virtually no high level drivers and karting disappearing up its own backside. 27 entries in total for the only 13/14 year old class for the French championships.
Of course this is a simplistic view of the problems and to some extent it is always going to be the case at the highest level in any sport, but it is many times worse in karting by virtue of unequal engines in virtually every class.
Fixing this isn't by any means rocket science, but as we know it is not in the immediate interests of those currently making money from the sport.
For any of those who might read this, I'll leave you with the business model of Alpha karting in France, who last year tried to justify a huge hike in prices, on the basis that they had fewer and fewer customers buying anything.
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