What is W Series, the female-only formula racing championship, and how does it work?

How did W Series begin?

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A former solicitor and corporate financier who dealt with M&A deals and IPOs, including the sales and acquisitions of Chelsea and Aston Villa football clubs, Catherine had taken a couple of years off work following the birth of her son.

Not one to rest on her laurels, the then 45-year-old was soon looking for a new challenge in terms of her career. She recalls: “I was thinking about what my future was going to be. I had a drink with a couple of friends who worked in F1, and they said, ‘well, what about a women’s motor series?’ And I thought, ‘oh, that's a great idea’. But after I did some research, I thought, ‘well, that's a dreadful idea’, because if men and women actually race together, there's no need for a separate series.”

However, the seed was planted in her head. She decided to dig into more research, and discovered that the number of women racing in single-seaters had declined year-on-year over the previous eight years. At the same time, more women in the United Kingdom were gaining visibility for playing soccer, rugby and cricket, which were traditionally male-dominated sports.

“That was the light bulb moment for me – that the situation in motor sport is actually getting worse [compared to other sports], and so something had to change,” she explains.

Three years on, W Series was launched in October 2018. 2019 marked the inaugural racing season, and there have been three seasons thus far, with the 2020 season cancelled due to the pandemic.

How does W Series work?

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The series features 18 female racers from around the globe, plus two reserve drivers.

It’s well-known that motorsport is exorbitant and requires heavy cash injection. The W Series championship is free-to-enter; unlike other Formula racing championships, W Series teams are purely for sponsorship and identification purposes. Drivers compete in mechanically identical cars, the Tatuus F3 T-318.

“When you set up a series from scratch, you have to be very intentional about what you stand for. We are about the promotion of women, and on that basis, we can’t be about the promotion of a subset of women – rich women,” explains Catherine, on the decision to fully fund the W Series drivers. “It has to be about the the best drivers that we can find. W Series is about pure speed – it's not about money or the differentials in cars. So I think W series is almost unique in that aspect; it is a true meritocracy.”

The championship offers a total prize fund of $1.5 million, with the series champion receiving a top prize of $500,000, and the remaining $1 million being divided among the rest of the drivers.

Is W Series part of F1?

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The series had initially started off in 2019 running alongside the DTM European racing series. After a year’s hiatus due to the pandemic, W Series returned in 2021 as a Formula Regional-level racing series alongside F2 and F3, in support of the F1 world championship.

Was being a part of the F1 calendar ever the goal for W Series? “It would have been an end goal; I was very, very surprised at how quickly it happened,” says Catherine. “Right now, we are with Formula One and we do want to keep going and expanding into new territories. In the future, I wouldn't discount going into other areas either with other series or not, but at the moment, we're all in with Formula One.”

Is there a need for a female-only racing series?

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Despite its success thus far, W Series kicked off with plenty of debate on whether there’s a need for a special women’s series that pits women against each other.

“I'm sympathetic to both sides of the argument, but when I set this up, there was one woman racing in a single seater motor racing series in the world. When we started in 2019, overnight, we put 18 more women in that position,” says Catherine. “I personally don't see why it is offensive at all for women to race against women. What we are doing is putting women [in the] front and centre of single-seat motor racing.”

She adds: “We have many more female engineers and mechanics, and about 90% of our London office is female. In motorsport, it’s unheard of for there to be predominantly female women actually running the whole event. This is not tokenism at all, this is about female empowerment.”

Has there been a W Series driver that has progressed to F1 thus far?

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As of the time of writing, no. Current reigning champion Jamie Chadwick, who clinched her second championship title in 2021 and is looking well on-track to win her third, is poised to be the first W Series driver to do so with ​​her role as development driver for the Williams Formula One team and her success in other series, but she has yet to secure an opportunity in F3 or F2 due to funding issues.

“I think what W series has done is to demonstrate that Jamie is, at the moment, the fastest female driver in single-seaters. I am confident that she will be racing next year in another series, but Rome wasn't built in a day and you can't correct the holes of motorsport in a couple of years,” notes Catherine. “Changing structures and changing how a whole sport behaves and the way in which money flows will take time.”

She highlights F1 drivers George Russell, who currently drives for the Mercedes-AMG team, as well as McLaren’s Lando Norris, as Jamie’s counterparts. “They've had hundreds more time in the car testing and racing than she has. It’s like Jamie is functioning with one arm behind her back, because she simply hasn't had the same amount of time as they had.”

Why has there been such a prolonged absence of female drivers from the F1 grid?

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One of the reasons why female drivers struggle to make it to the F1 starting grid is the same battle that Jamie is facing: money. F1 is an expensive sport, but few sponsors are willing to fund female drivers.

“W series can fund some of the drivers at some point, but if you want to go on, you have got to find your money. Drivers need to be supported from a very, very young age and that's either by parents or through sponsorships,” explains Catherine. “My belief is that these sponsors, when they sponsor young drivers, they're all looking for the next Lewis Hamilton or Max [Verstappen], they're looking for the next successful Formula One driver. That money isn't gonna go into a woman because they've never believed that a woman was going to get into Formula One anyway.”

Where does W Series come into play? “I think what we’re doing is heightening the profile of women in motorsport so significantly that more women will start to go [into motorsports] and people are going to start believing that a woman is going to get into F1. I do think that there will be more talented young female drivers and that money that used to go into the boys? I think it will start going into the girls. People will want to be the support of that woman who gets into F1, and let's face it, the first woman who gets into F1 again is going to become a huge global star, isn't she?”

Will there be more of an Asian focus with W Series?

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“In short, we do want to develop it. It’s not only more Asian races, but I would personally love to get more Asian drivers involved,” affirms Catherine, who highlights current Asian drivers Bianca Bustamante and Juju Noda on the grid. “[For that to happen], we need more Asian girls going into karting and coming through the ranks. I do hope W series can be an inspiration to young Asian girls to start karting and see whether they enjoy it.”

Where can I watch W Series?

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​​W Series has record-breaking viewing figures; in the UK, it is the most-watched motorsport after F1, and the racing series is also the most-watched female sport by event.

In Singapore, the qualifying session (Saturday 1st October; 16:45 – 17:15) and main race (Sunday 2nd October; 16:45 – 17:20) will be broadcasted live on Singtel Mio Sports 2.

For a full list on how you can tune in to W Series, click here.