Things get further complicated with the IAME engines’ set-up: they’re tuned to develop way more ‘top end’ to the more familiar Rotax devices but have less low-end torque. Timing entry and exit into slower corners is a whole new ball game at Lonato. Thankfully, those first couple of days proved useful. It wasn’t just the sun that shone in Garda this weekend.

Even when you throw a new track, a foreign country and a new kart set-up at Nelson, he still hits back with a set of eye-widening results. By the end of Day #2, timings showed he was already within a tenth of the quickest seasoned driver at Lonato. This put him in a select handful of the 35 karters out there, including Kimi Raikkonen’s son, Robin. Both Robin and Nelson may well race under the same number of 91 but it was clear that ‘Orange 91’ was quicker.

The most heart-warming fact of this long weekend was that Nelson is judged purely on talent and putting that talent into action and numbers on the track. Of course, he’s overcoming challenges that others, like Robin Raikkonen (it’s fair to say), don’t need to surmount before they compete and beat their peers.

But, for all in Team Nelson, it’s still the sometime unfathomable transformation of a house-bound, shy boy into a karter that commands praise for (and not a little astonishment at) his progress in just over a year.

So, we start 2025 for his first full season, buoyed with ambition. Now we compete against some of the best to become the best. It’s going to be a ride and a half, so stay on board and support Nelson however you can. Forza Orange 91 !