Is it time to replace your race suit? Let’s get you track-ready. How To Choose FIA Racing Gloves: Approvals, Sizing And What Actually Matters
Gloves are the cheapest piece of racewear you will buy and the one people most often buy twice. Not because they wear out, but because the pair that arrived turns out to carry the wrong approval for what they are actually doing, and a scrutineer is not interested in how good they feel.
There are three different approval routes on our shelves and they are not interchangeable. Get that right first and everything else, the size, the seams, the money, is a comfortable decision. This page does them in that order.
Three approvals, not one
Every glove we sell falls into one of three groups, and the label on the listing tells you which. This is the whole decision in one table.
| What the listing says | What it is for | Examples on our shelves |
|---|---|---|
| FIA 8856-2018 | Car racing. The standard UK club car competition asks for | OMP Sport, OMP First, OMP Tecnica, OMP One Evo X |
| FIA 8877-2022 | Karting. The FIA standard for karting protective clothing | Alpinestars Tech 1-K V3, OMP KS-X |
| Non-FIA | Practice, testing, mechanics and events that do not require homologated gloves | OMP New Rally (also ISO 6940), Sparco K-Rookie |
The trap is that all three look like racing gloves and two of them are made by the same brands. A pair of Non-FIA gloves is a perfectly good product; it is just not a competition product where the regulations name a standard. Read the approval line before you read the price, and if your regulations say FIA, start at the gloves that say FIA.
Karting is a different standard, and it changed
This is the part worth understanding properly, because it is new enough that plenty of advice online is out of date.
Karting protective clothing now has its own FIA standard, 8877-2022, and the FIA publish the approved products on Technical List number 101, titled protective clothing for karting competitors. The significant change is what it covers: the older karting standard, CIK-FIA 2013-1, is a standard for overalls, and it sits on a separate technical list of its own. Gloves and boots were never covered by a karting-specific FIA standard before 8877-2022 arrived.
So a karting glove approved to FIA 8877-2022 is a genuinely different thing from a car racing glove approved to FIA 8856-2018, and from an unapproved kart glove. All three are on our site. What your class requires, and from when, is in your own regulations, and we are not going to quote you a date we cannot show you in a rulebook.
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Getting the size right
Gloves are sized by letter here, XS through to XXL depending on the model, and the ranges are not identical between brands. OMP run XS to XL across most of the race range. Sparco go as wide as XXS to XXL on some kart gloves. Alpinestars typically start at S. So the letter you wore in another brand is a starting point and nothing more.
Measure the palm circumference around the widest part of your hand, not including the thumb, and check it against the chart on the listing you are buying from. If you are between sizes, take the smaller one: a race glove should feel close and slightly snug when new, because the material relaxes with use and a loose glove moves on the wheel, which is exactly what you do not want when you are trying to feel what the front axle is doing.
Two practical checks once they arrive. Make a fist; you want no significant bunching across the back of the hand. And take hold of something round, a steering wheel if you have one to hand, and see whether the fingertips have spare material past the ends of your fingers. A centimetre of empty glove at the end of a finger is where feel goes to die.
Seams, grip and feel
Once the approval and the size are settled, the differences up the range are about how the glove is built and how much you notice it.
External seams. The dearer race gloves put the seams on the outside so nothing presses into your fingers against the wheel rim. On a twenty minute sprint you may not care. On a two hour stint you will.
Grip material. Most of our race gloves use a suede or silicone printed palm. What matters is how it behaves against your wheel: a suede rim and a suede palm is a lovely combination, and a silicone print on a slick leather rim can feel curiously slippery when your hands are warm.
Weight and backing. The Nomex on the back of a race glove is what gives it the approval, and the lighter constructions higher up the range trade a little bulk for feel. Garreth’s view is that most club drivers get more from spending on the fit than on the last twenty per cent of lightness.
- External seams on the upper range, less to feel against the rim
- Suede or silicone printed palms, match it to your wheel
- Between sizes, take the smaller: race gloves relax with use
- Nomex backing is what carries the FIA approval
The range, entry to top
Prices include VAT and were correct on 13 August 2026.
| Glove | Approval | Price inc VAT | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sparco K-Rookie Kart | Non-FIA | £28.80 | Junior and practice karting |
| Alpinestars Tech 1-K Race V2 Kart | See listing | £43.20 | Club karting |
| OMP New Rally | ISO 6940, Non-FIA | £69.00 | Rally and road use where FIA is not required |
| OMP Sport Race | FIA 8856-2018 | £78.00 | The entry into FIA car racing |
| OMP First Race | FIA 8856-2018 | £88.80 | The club racing default |
| Alpinestars Tech 1-K V3 Kart | FIA 8877-2022 | £92.40 | Karting to the current FIA standard |
| OMP KS-X Kart | FIA 8877-2022 | £116.40 | Top of the kart range |
| OMP Tecnica Race | FIA 8856-2018 | £141.60 | External seams, lighter build |
| OMP One Evo X Race | FIA 8856-2018 | £181.20 | The flagship car glove |
Note the two rows that sit close on price and are for completely different things: the OMP New Rally at £69.00 is not FIA homologated, while the OMP Sport at £78.00 is. Nine pounds is the difference between a glove that satisfies an FIA requirement and one that does not.
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Common questions
Can I use car racing gloves for karting?
Check your class regulations, because karting now has its own FIA standard for protective clothing, 8877-2022, and the FIA publish the approved products on their Technical List 101. A glove approved to the car standard, FIA 8856-2018, is approved to a different standard. Where your regulations name one specifically, buy the one they name.
What does Non-FIA mean on a glove listing?
That the glove is not homologated to an FIA standard. It does not mean it is a poor glove. Our OMP New Rally gloves are listed as ISO 6940 approved and Non-FIA, and they are popular for rally, practice and road use. They are simply not the right purchase where your regulations require an FIA homologated glove.
What size do I need?
Measure the palm circumference at the widest part of your hand excluding the thumb, and use the chart on the specific listing, because the ranges differ between brands. Between sizes, take the smaller one. A new race glove should feel snug; the material relaxes and a loose glove moves on the rim.
Are external seams worth the money?
For long stints, yes, because there is nothing pressing into your fingers where they wrap the wheel. For short sprints and hillclimb runs it matters much less. If the budget is tight, we would put it into the correct approval and a proper fit before we put it into seam construction.
Do gloves have an expiry date?
The homologation label is what a scrutineer reads, and the standards themselves move on over time, which is why the karting side has changed. Physically, replace gloves when the palm material is worn through, the stitching is going, or the fit has stretched out. Bring them in and we will tell you honestly whether they have had it.
Should the gloves match the suit standard?
They should both satisfy whatever your regulations require, which for UK club car racing usually means FIA 8856-2018 across the set. Our race suit guide covers the same standard from the suit end, and if you are buying a full set, tell us the class and we will price the lot against one list.
What we would buy
Club car racing where the regulations say FIA: the OMP First at £88.80 is the pair we sell most and there is nothing wrong with it. If you do long stints or endurance, step to the Tecnica at £141.60 for the external seams.
Karting: buy to FIA 8877-2022 if your class requires it, which puts you at the Alpinestars Tech 1-K V3 at £92.40 or the OMP KS-X at £116.40. For a junior practising, the Non-FIA gloves from £28.80 are the sensible spend, because they will have outgrown them by the summer.
Rally or road use with no homologation requirement: the OMP New Rally at £69.00, and enjoy not paying for a standard you do not need.
Final thoughts: buy the approval, then the fit
Almost every glove problem we untangle is one of those two, and neither costs much to get right at the point of ordering. The full range is under racing gloves and karting gloves.
Ring 0115 9893488 with your class and your hand measurement and we will get it right first time. If you are kitting out from scratch, say so and we will do the whole list in one go.
