Italian karter Luca Corberi imposes lifetime motorsport ban after Lonato chaos

Italian karter Luca Corberi has announced his indefinite departure from all forms of motorsport after throwing his kart’s bumper and then assaulting rival Paolo Ippolito in the pits after this weekend FIA Karting Word Championship final at the Lonato circuit in Italy.

In a statement on his Facebook page, the 23 year old, who has faced damning criticism from the motorsport community for his actions with some, including 2009 Formula 1 champion Jenson Button calling for a lifetime ban, said he had made decision to voluntarily give-up his licence and never compete in motorsport for the rest of his life.

“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 career, and I really hope it won’t be seen by anybody else in the future,” Corberi said in the post which has reportedly since been deleted.

“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 mistake but as they showed me, they don’t have the power for doing it. It is 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-justice, it’s simply the right thing to do. My family has been in karting since 1985, we’ve seen it grow, we’ve seen the best and the worst part of it. This episode will be remembered as one of the worst in our sport and that’s something I’ll never forget”.

He added that, “I’m not asking for any indulgence, because I don’t deserve it. I will totally agree with the punishments required. I’m writing today to say sorry even if it’s not enough, because, after all the bad things that happened during this event, the worst has been done by me, a guy who loves this sport and after the worst day of his life will still remember his good racing memories”.

Corberi’s father, the owner of Lonato and implicated in the assault of Ippolito, has not made any comment yet with the future of the track remaining in doubt after escalating calls for it to dropped were made on social media after the incident, captured on the world television feed and smartphone camera, went viral on Sunday.

“This behaviour is unacceptable in our sport. Those individuals will face the consequences of their action,” FIA International Karting Commissioning Head and Former Ferrari Formula 1 driver Felipe Massa was quoted by Autosport as saying. An investigation has since been launched by the FIA.

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