Feature: W Series changing the game for women in motorsport

by motorsport correspondent Michael Butterworth

BEIJING, June 28 (Xinhua) -- A dominant win from pole position, plenty of overtaking throughout the field, a driver charging through from the back after early contact, and the top three finishers jubilantly spraying prosecco on the podium at Austria's Red Bull Ring.

While this might sound like a short review of the weekend's Formula One Styrian Grand Prix, it actually describes last Saturday's action in the first round of the 2021 W Series, an all-female racing championship that is increasingly turning heads and striking a blow for gender equality within global motorsport.

The W Series is the brainchild of Catherine Bond Muir, a former solicitor and corporate financier who had worked on deals including the sale of Chelsea FC to Roman Abramovich and the acquisition of Aston Villa FC by Randy Lerner. Bond Muir hit upon the idea for the series after seeking to find a new direction following the birth of her son, though unusually for the founder of a motor racing championship, she had no previous motorsport experience. What inspired her to create the W Series?

"I looked at the number of women who were racing in single-seater motor racing series across the world, and year-on-year, the numbers were actually going down," Bond Muir tells Xinhua. "And that was at a time where sports like football, rugby and cricket were really starting to grow for women, so motorsport was bucking the trend and actually going backwards. So I thought the W Series was a really good idea, because women are not catered for in lots of different aspects of motorsport."

Leaning on her corporate finance days, Bond Muir drafted a business plan and set out on a two-year journey to raise enough capital to set up what would eventually become the W Series - a daunting task in a hostile business environment for someone with no skin in the motorsport game.

After much rejection, the cards began to fall for Bond Muir when her idea caught the eye of ex-Formula One driver David Coulthard, who now commentates on that series and retains a wealth of connections within global motorsport.

"David is the best opener of doors that I have ever met in my life," Bond Muir says of the Scot's input to the W Series. "He introduced us to our cornerstone investor Sean Wadsworth and our racing director Dave Ryan, who had been at [Coulthard's former F1 team] McLaren for over 30 years. No one would have spoken to Catherine Bond Muir, so I needed motorsport credibility, and that's what David brought along with him."

Coulthard's involvement in the W Series stems from his deep-rooted belief that women can compete at the same level as men if they are given the platform to do so, after his early rise through the ranks sounded the death knell for his younger sister's aspiring karting career.

"I saw first-hand that my sister was more naturally talented than I was, but by the time her career was gaining momentum, I was 17 and racing in Formula Ford and getting championships, and my family were going along to watch," says Coulthard. "That took away from her career, and slowly but surely it petered out as mine kept going."

"In my mind, there's no difference in talent," adds the Scot, who was taken under the wing of three-time F1 world champion Sir Jackie Stewart once it became clear he was a driver of real potential. "I wasn't the best F1 driver, but I had the best schooling which then gave me a 15-year career. The only way we can sincerely give young girls an opportunity is if they have the same development and the same helping hand [as male racers]."

In the W Series, that opportunity comes in the form of removing many of the financial barriers to entry into single-seater motorsport. A single season in Formula Three can cost upwards of half a million dollars, making it prohibitively expensive for drivers to progress through the ranks without significant sponsorship or financial backing.

By contrast, the W Series - which uses the same machinery and equipment as many F3 series - is free to enter, and carries a total prize purse of 1,500,000 U.S. dollars, with the series champion taking home 500,000 dollars. Drivers are chosen by the series itself through an ability-based selection process, rather than by dint of the finances they might bring.

As movements for female empowerment gained greater traction in the years following Bond Muir's first business plan, interest in a female-only racing series had gained enough momentum for the W Series to begin life in 2019, with 55 initial applicants whittled down to 20 drivers on the grid for the first ever race at Hockenheim in Germany that May.

Five more races followed that year, with British racer Jamie Chadwick emerging triumphant at the end of the season to be crowned the first ever W Series champion and catch the eye of the Williams F1 team, who signed her up as a development driver.

"In the junior ranks, it's really difficult to get sponsorship because the level of exposure is quite minimal, so to have that prize money support made a massive difference," says Chadwick of her champion's windfall. "I was able to go out and race in Asian F3 which I wouldn't otherwise have been able to do, which all contributes to the goal of trying to race in F1."

Other drivers are using the free-to-enter W Series to return to single-seater racing after having previously been priced out of it. Alice Powell had returned to work alongside her tradesman father after her funds dried up in 2015, while Jessica Hawkins took on work as a stunt driver when progression up the racing ladder proved too expensive.

"If it wasn't for the W Series, I don't know what direction I would have taken," says Hawkins, who is dovetailing her racing commitments with a new role as a brand ambassador for the Aston Martin F1 team. "W Series really gave me a second chance at racing, and it was that that brought me back. So I've a lot to thank W Series for, and the championship in 2019 completely blew me away, it was amazing."

After all the positivity of a 2019 season which was viewed by 320 million households worldwide, the W Series was brought back down to earth with a bump in 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancelation of the entire season. But while this might have fatally stunted the momentum of the nascent series, Bond Muir says the enforced hiatus allowed for more forward planning to take place.

"What the year off did was make us pause and think about what we were as a business, and how we wanted to grow," says Bond Muir. "Just as COVID was hitting, we were already running at a million miles an hour into our second season. We had no time to really think about our strategy going forward off the back of the first year."

A significant deal Bond Muir and her team brokered on the year off sees the W Series share the stage with Formula One in 2021, featuring on the undercard at eight Grand Prix weekends. Not only does that give W Series drivers the chance to catch the eye of F1's movers and shakers, but potential crowds of over 100,000 will also be there to enjoy the action.

"It's fantastic," Chadwick says of the W Series joining the F1 support bill. "It's the platform that you all want to be on. The extra level of exposure is fantastic, and racing on Grand Prix tracks in front of the right people is going to make a big difference and a huge added opportunity for us all."

Chadwick is back on the W Series grid this season to defend her 2019 title, which she clinched at that year's final race at Brands Hatch after a season-long battle. What would she say to a casual fan to attract them to watch along?

"Just turn on the TV. If it's anything like 2019, it's going to be great racing and it'll have everyone hooked after the first race."

The 2021 W Series runs for eight rounds and concludes in Mexico City on October 30. Enditem