W Series to become team-based championship as sponsors rush in

LONDON — The all-woman W Series, which is supporting Formula A single at eight grands prix this yr, will turn into a workforce-dependent championship from 2022 as a final result of robust sponsor desire, organizers claimed on Thursday.

Motorists will carry on to race with equivalent machinery, nevertheless, with cars prepared and taken care of by W Series Engineering.

The series, whose second season begins at Austria’s Pink Bull Ring this weekend and which has the ultimate aim of encouraging a female race in Formula A single for the initial time considering the fact that 1976, at this time delivers cars to the drivers separately.

The women of all ages racers, selected on benefit, pay back nothing for their seats and contend for a whole prize fund of $1.five million.

The new workforce structure will see driver pairings symbolizing a quantity of new sponsors which includes German sportswear business Puma.

“It transforms the organization, it is bringing in dollars in get to generate a sustainable organization,” W series founder and main govt Catherine Bond Muir told Reuters.

She claimed putting on the series charge tens of tens of millions of dollars but the link-up with Formula A single supplied a global phase and a “quality stamp” for sponsors.

“Heading forward we are heading to be sustained by our partners coming in. We can have prolonged-phrase planning and expand the organization a lot improved. For me this is potentially our most essential announcement,” she included.

“It is effectively documented how women’s activity has been more impacted than men’s activity through the pandemic. I believe one of the fantastic matters about what we’re saying is that it demonstrates we’re bucking that craze.”

Bond Muir claimed there would be a groups championship in future but not a constructors’ one, because W series wanted to assure a amount participating in field.

Teams would not be allowed to charge the drivers any dollars or power them to carry sponsorship in get to secure the push, as transpires in other junior series.

Bond Muir envisaged a circumstance the place groups could be competing for the services of a driver, and that would be inspired.

“We want the drivers to gain dollars so if there was levels of competition and they obtained the most effective driver because they ended up having to pay more dollars, from my issue of see that is all very good,” she claimed.

“What we’re encouraging to do is empower woman drivers and get dollars for them. We have however obtained our prize dollars this yr…but heading forward if groups wanted to arrive in and pay back a large amount of dollars for a specific driver then I would individually welcome that.”

Britain’s inaugural W Series champion Jamie Chadwick will characterize the Veloce workforce, with whom she presently has a partnership.

The series did not race last yr because of to the COVID-19 pandemic soon after beginning in 2019 alongside the German Touring Car championship (DTM).

Bond Muir claimed the initial yr had centered on outlining the rationale for the series, and the second was about survival and receiving the deal with Formula A single.

“This yr has been about financial protection and has obtained to be now about viewers development and spreading the brand name of W Series during the world,” she claimed.