W Series will have the honour of being the first championship to race on the new Miami International Autodrome when the all-female junior series begins its third season this weekend.
In retrospect, 2019 was a very difficult year for the new championship to launch. After that first, six-race season W Series was forced to put racing on hold for a year when 2020’s Covid-19 pandemic hit.
It returned to racing last year, now elevated to the status of F1 support series. But the pandemic continued to have an effect and as the cancellations and postponements of grands prix meant the series was forced to rearrange or cancel some rounds.
But for its third season W Series will embark on its longest-ever championship. It also boasts a refreshed line-up of young talent looking to progress up the motorsport ladder.
They will have to measure themselves against Jamie Chadwick, who returns to the series to defend the two titles she has won so far. While she strives for a third crown which would underline her status as the top female single seater racer, for the others she represents a benchmark they will all want to beat.
W Series’ 2022 driver line-up
Alongside several notable additions to the driving roster from last year many of W Series most famous names are still there. Beitske Visser, Alice Powell and Emma Kimilainen – the drivers who provided the strongest opposition to Chadwick in W Series’ first two seasons – are also continuing.
Using a new selection process, including a test in Arizona this February, W Series looked to find candidates from backgrounds it has drawn few drivers from so far, and also to bring down the average age of its competitors.
W Series testing, Circuit de Catalunya, 2022“When we set up a series in 2019 we invited applicants from all over the world,” explained W Series CEO Catherine Bond-Muir during the Arizona test. “We had probably 100 fairly serious applicants and we took 68 of those applicants to do a four-day test in…