The women-only W Series is to be launched in 2019
The women-only single-seater championship W Series (W stands for Women) will be launched in 2019 with an aim to help female drivers to reach Formula 1 and other top single-seater competitions much easier than now.
Some great men from Formula One world, like David Coulthard and Adrian Newey, are supporting W Series as advisors and judges in a selection process. The W Series will have a selection process for female racers who wouldn’t have to bring sponsorships with them, only their talent, speed and passion. The best among them will earn $500,000 to use that money for her future career. A total prize fund will be $1.5million.
The plan is to have six rounds in the first season which will start in May 2019. The races will take place in Europe and the UK. The competitors will use Tatuus T-318 Formula 3 cars, powered by identical 270hp Autotecnica Motori inline four-cylinder 1.8-litre turbocharged engines, using Sadev six-speed sequential gearboxes, fitted with HALO safety devices.
W Series will use Tatuus T-318 F3-spec cars
“In order to be a successful racing driver, you have to be skilled, determined, competitive, brave and physically fit, but you don’t have to possess the kind of super-powerful strength levels that some sports require. You also don’t have to be a man. That’s why we at W Series firmly believe that female and male racing drivers can compete with one another on equal terms given the same opportunity.
At the moment, however, women racing drivers tend to reach a ‘glass ceiling’ at around the GP3/Formula 3 level on their learning curve, often as a result of a lack of funding rather than a lack of talent. That’s why an all-new all-female single-seater motor racing series is required – W Series – to establish a competitive and constructive motorsport habitat in which our drivers will be able to equip themselves with the necessary skill-set eventually to move on up to existing high-level mainstream racing series and compete with the best male drivers on equal terms,” David Coulthard said about a new championship.
W Series CEO Catherine Bond Muir added: “There are just too few women competing in single-seaters series at the moment. W Series will increase that number very significantly in 2019, thereby powerfully unleashing the potential of many more female racing drivers. W Series drivers will become global superstars – inspirational role models for women everywhere – and every organisation, every company, every sponsor and indeed every single person who helps W Series’ winners and champions achieve those ground-breaking successes will be able to celebrate their part in it, publicly, to lasting worldwide acclaim.”
Photo: W Series,
