One of the most noticeable things throughout the history of motorsports has been the relative absence of women as racing drivers, most notably in more recent years. There is no racing series that disallows women from competing, so why is it that there are so few competing? In this blog post, I intend to cover what W Series is, why it’s necessary, and how it could potentially impact future generations and racing series for the better.
W Series is a women’s only racing series, using identical cars to those used in Formula 3 (the third tier of formula racing, below Formula 1 and Formula 2). It’s a single seater, open wheel spec series, ‘spec’ meaning that all competitors use the same cars and engines. So far nothing that hasn’t been seen before, however it starts to diverge into something more interesting and unique on the logistical side of things. The point of a spec series is to level the playing field, giving all drivers an equal platform to compete. However, a race car cannot run without an engineer. If a driver’s team has more experienced engineers, then they will have a car that is set up and tuned better than other drivers, creating an advantage. W Series, however, came up with a way to rectify this; all the drivers swap cars and engineers between races. There are no teams, the focus is solely on the drivers and their ability, and the swapping of equipment and personnel between races is a seemingly mundane yet essential part of achieving that focus. This level of ensuring fair competition is what could be revolutionary for other racing series, and leads on to the next section, all about why W Series' existence is necessary.
A common criticism of W Series is that it creates segregation by being exclusive to women. This is an understandable conclusion, since no other racing series specifically segregates by sex, however this overlooks the socioeconomic disparities between men and women. It is well known that motorsports is a rich game to play. Entry fees, cars, tyres, repairs, fuel, all of this costs money which drivers usually need to get from sponsorship deals or from simply having cash to spend. There are multiple reasons why this is important: Firstly, it is also well documented that women are on average less financially successful than men, and this gap widens as the level of earning increases. Secondly, the pool of talent for women in racing is orders of magnitudes smaller than for men; the ratio of boys to girls with karting licenses sits at around 14:1 currently, due simply to less women being interested in the sport than men. Driving and racing has historically been the world of men, and though there is increasing push to change this, combating such ingrained preconceptions takes both time and effort in large quantities. For women getting into pro-racing, this also raises the emotional hurdle of being the 'only one' or one of few, when compared to men who would have no reason to feel that same pressure.
With all that setup, now to dive into why W Series is truly necessary. The main reason is that it creates a positive space for like-minded individuals, but it also tackles the issue of financial trouble. Drivers are chosen from a pool of 60 competitors, who take part in challenges pre-season to whittle the number down to 20 who will drive for the championship. There are no entry fees, and all of the equipment, personnel and transport are provided by W Series themselves. It has provided a wonderful entry into pro-racing for women, and I can easily see future racing series adopting similar models opened up for both sexes. A final, incredibly important note on why W Series is important, is how it could impact future generations. For young girls to be able to see and relate to a racing series with all women that they can relate to, is far more likely to get them interested than seeing other racing, where women are few and far between. What’s more, these women are all incredible influences to have for any young person; truly strong individuals, with iron wills, pure skill, courage and the determination to compete and win. The first W Series champion was Jamie Chadwick in 2019, unfortunately the 2020 season could not go ahead due to Covid-19 but W Series will be back in full capacity for 2021. I personally am very much looking forward to seeing who emerges at the top. I encourage anyone who is interested to look at the content on the W Series YouTube channel, specifically past broadcasts of the 2019 championship races. It's a new and exciting entity, and the racing action is great.