Rumor: W-Series about to go belly-up (2nd Update)

W Series today confirms that its 2022 season will be curtailed and the final three races of its scheduled 2022 season – at Circuit of The Americas, Austin, Texas, USA (21-22 October) and a double-header at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico City, Mexico, on 28-30 October – will not go ahead.

As confirmed during the most recent W Series race event at Marina Bay Circuit in Singapore on 30 September – 2 October in support of the Formula 1® Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix 2022, the required funding due to the business from a recent contracted investment was not received, forcing the remaining three races of the 2022 calendar into doubt.

Since then, the decision has been made to focus on the longer-term fundraising process to enable the longevity and financial health of W Series into 2023 and beyond, and enable cost cutting by cancelling the remaining races in Austin and Mexico City.

The premature end to the 2022 season means that Jamie Chadwick – who sits 50 points clear in the drivers’ championship standings – is crowned W Series Champion for a record-breaking third time. Her incredible W Series career, including 11 wins, 10 pole positions and 18 podiums across three seasons (2019, 2021 and 2022 – with no racing in 2020 due to the pandemic), has shown her to be the class of the field since the debut of the series in 2019, and the perfect springboard to the next step in her motorsport career, to be announced in due course.

Despite the curtailment of the 2022 season, thanks to overwhelming support since the news of the series’ financial difficulties was announced, and the subsequent ongoing fundraising process, the future of W Series promises to be brighter.

Catherine Bond Muir (Chief Executive Officer, W Series) said: “It’s with both great sadness and frustration that we announce that our much-anticipated final three races of the 2022 season in Austin and Mexico City will not go ahead. As a start-up in only our third season of racing, we are always working hard to ensure regularity of funding as we continue to grow our business, but due to recent unforeseen circumstances outside of W Series’ control, we had not been in receipt of contracted funds due to us. Therefore, we have been forced to make the unfortunate decision not to complete our scheduled calendar this season. We would like to thank both Circuit of The Americas and Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez’s Grupo CIE for their support as promoters of our events in Austin and Mexico City respectively, and apologize to both them and our fans that we will not be able to go racing there this year.

“We have worked hard to raise the required funding to enable us to finish the season. Unfortunately, it was not possible to do this in the short time frame required following the failure of contracted funds to arrive and the global economic downturn. However, while we are all incredibly disappointed that this decision has had to be made in the short term, we remain positive about the future of W Series in the long term. It is well-documented that women’s sports receive far less funding than its male counterparts, and W Series is no exception. We are incredibly thankful for the help and support we have received in recent weeks following the news of the financial difficulties we’ve been facing, which has accelerated our fundraising process and given us great optimism as we look to 2023 and beyond.

“While we aren’t in a position to make a formal announcement yet, there are many positive conversations ongoing and all parties share our passion for and belief in our mission to provide our incredible field of women drivers a platform to showcase their talents and to race in front of enthusiastic fans all around the world. We are doing everything we can to ensure the long-term financial health of our business and we look forward to W Series’ continued growth and success.

“Having set up W Series in 2018, I am acutely accustomed to the relentless work that goes on to not only keep our business operational, but also acquire the fundraising and sponsorship to grow our business further, supporting our talented drivers and hard-working personnel who put their heart and soul into driving W Series and our mission forward. We are grateful for the continued support of our incredible and growing fanbase, and we hope to share positive news regarding the future of W Series in the coming weeks.

“Finally, I want to extend a huge congratulations to our triple-champion Jamie Chadwick. She has dominated the 2022 W Series and this championship is well-deserved. We have been and always will be incredibly proud and supportive of her career and wish her well in her next exciting chapter. To all our W Series drivers, I’d like to express both pride and sincere gratitude for your professionalism and talent, providing entertaining and exciting racing all season long, and for your continually unwavering support as we navigate the next steps for our series. We will always work hard to provide women racing drivers the opportunities to achieve success and we will not stop fighting to continue the work W Series has started to support women in motorsport.”

(GMM) The mission of powering a woman onto the Formula 1 grid has suffered a major setback, as it emerges that the so-called ‘W Series’ is on the brink of collapse.

The Telegraph reports that the series, in which only female drivers race at the wheel of Formula 3 cars during eight Formula 1 race weekends, may collapse after this weekend’s event in Singapore.

The report said W Series owes “significant sums” to creditors and may not be able to afford to attend the last two scheduled events at Austin and Mexico.

Series boss Catherine Bond Muir tried to play down the situation.

“We’ve had to fight from day one,” she said. “It has always been a struggle but we’re fighters.

“We’re looking at our budgets. We’re confident that we’ll continue to raise money.”

However, the situation is so dire that it is feared runaway series leader Jamie Chadwick – who also won the first W Series championships in 2019 and 2021 – will not receive her $500,000 prize money this year.

That is because the series’ accounts show that as of earlier this month, W Series owes $8.3 million euros.

F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali caused a stir last month when he said only a “meteorite” could accelerate the chances of a woman joining the F1 grid “in the next five years”.

Chadwick, however, hit back by claiming that being on the grid in five years is in fact her clear objective.

“As great as the W Series is, it lacked the driving time and development that it needed,” the 24-year-old Briton said.

“For that reason, I think I should go straight into F2.”

But W Series boss Catherine Bond Muir insists she is still “optimistic” about the future.

“You have to understand W Series is a brand new sport,” she said.

“Tennis has equality now because Billie Jean King fought for those rights 50 years ago. Football is slowly starting to become more equal.

“It takes time. We’re only in our third season.”

Jamie Chadwick looks set to wrap up a third straight W Series title in Singapore this weekend but Telegraph Sport understands there are serious doubts over the all-female series’ ability to complete Season 3 due to funding issues which have left it owing “significant sums” to creditors.

W Series’ most recent accounts filed with Companies House on Sep 5 showed it had net liabilities of over £7.5million to Dec 31, 2021.

This explains why Chadwick was recently testing an Indy Lights car for Andretti Autosport.  She likely sees the writing on the wall.