Albert Tamm Swiss karting champion 2023 in the Super Minis

At eleven years old, Albert Tamm is the youngest Swiss champion of 2023. The young Ticinese won the Super Mini title this year. Like his biggest rival this season, Dan Allemann, Tamm only took part in four of the five races, which makes his title even more valuable.

Tamm lives with his family above Lugano, at the foot of Monte Bré; his parents Ravio and Liisa are from Estonia. Father Ravio drove a Porsche in the Baltic championship. Tamm started racing karts at the age of eight, straight into MS. He made his first attempts in his parents’ homeland. But he soon replaced the rental kart with a racing kart. Albert developed his passion for racing at the age of four. “I watched Formula 1 races on TV and did motocross.” Going from two to four wheels didn’t necessarily mean feeling safer. “Karting was just more fun,” says Tamm.

Tamm has undergone remarkable development over the past three years. In his first SM season, the blond boy placed 16th in the Swiss autobau karting championship. The best result was eleventh place in the final race in Franciacorta. For comparison: Allemann was already third in the championship in the 2021 season (behind Kuznini and Epifanio). Last year, Tamm attracted attention with regular top-5 finishes. At the season finale in Wohlen he came second and stood on the podium for the first time. He finished third in the championship, behind the two Spirit drivers Allemann and Corbi. The upward trend continued into 2023. Tamm trained diligently in Italy over the winter and made his mark early. For example at the Margutti Trophy in March, where he placed second out of 36 runners in the Mini U10 category.Tamm missed the season opener of the Autobau Swiss Kart Championship because this weekend he would have raced in the WSK Open Series in Cremona and celebrated his first podium there. In the second SM race in Franciacorta, Tamm, who speaks fluent English and Italian in addition to Estonian, secured full points in the final for the first time. He didn’t believe in the title at the time. “If you lose one race out of five, it’s difficult to make up the gap. If I finished second in the end, it would be a good result,” said Albert. A look at the statistics shows how consistently Tamm drove in subsequent races. In Mirecourt he scored 72 (out of 75 possible points), in Levier 67 and in Wohlen 70. This was enough to change the situation in the end. “It was a very hard-fought final,” says Tamm. «Before the last race I only had a four-point lead over Dan. And since he started from pole I knew I had to overtake him otherwise it wouldn’t be enough.” In addition to the SKM title, Tamm was able to celebrate other successes during the season. For example, his first victory in the WSK at the end of June in Sarno or his third place at the Trofeo delle Industrie. What will happen in 2024 is not yet clear. Given his age, Tamm could still race Super Minis in Switzerland for another year. If the learning curve continues to point upwards, he should also be one of the title contenders in next year’s WSK. The fact is that we will definitely hear more about Albert Tamm in the future.