The W series must be saved

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The W series, which is an all-women series, has had to cut its 2022 season short over financial concerns. This comes at a time when the Formula 1 is at its all-time highest popularity, with a significant number of female followers, and a growing female presence in the in the teams and the crew.

While the goal is for female racers to compete against their male counterparts, the W series takes a step in that direction by establishing a race where the women have a space to take on each other. What could constitute the next important step is to develop a dedicated, well-funded scheme to scout for and hone international level racers, such as the Racing Steps Foundation Project in UK, which helped several players to develop including James Calado,Oliver Turvey, Jack Harvey, Jake Dennis, Oliver Rowland, and Ben Barnicoat.

As part of the project, they received training from physicians, healthcare professionals, legal experts and drivers got exposure to the top teams in the circuit. This allowed young talents to develop, regardless of their prior experience and financial backing, and a similar scheme for women’s racing is the need of the hour.

An alternative lies in F1 junior teams, which currently exists but has so far mostly overlooked female racers, with some rare examples such as Red Bull’s signing of Beitske Visser in 2013, and W Series racer Marta Gracia’s stint at Renault when she was 17.

However, there is a difference in the training resources provided to female drivers, which can set them up for unfair comparisons with their male teammates, such as Williams Racing’s support of Jamie Chadwick and Susie Wolff. According to the W Series founder, these racers are at par with racers like George Russel and Lando Norris but have not had comparable training and practice sessions. Hopes are now skewed towards younger racers like Luna Fluxa of Mercedes, who is only 12, with older racers believed to be too far behind in their training to catch up to the men.

Performance in motorsports remains dependent on factors supplementary to talent, such as training and funding, and till women are represented adequately in open competition, the W series must continue.