Funding issue cuts short W Series season

The final three races of this year’s W Series season have been cancelled due to financial reasons, shares organiser W Series Limited. This means the races in the Hankook Tire sponsored, all-female championship that were scheduled to take place at Circuit of The Americas, USA on 21 and 22 October and the double-header at Autódromo Hermanos, Mexico on 28 to 30 October will not go ahead.

Announcing the changes to the 2022 W Series season, the organiser reports that the remaining three races initially came “into doubt” when “required funding due to the business from a recent contracted investment was not received.” The organiser subsequently decided to “focus on the longer-term fundraising process” to enable the “longevity and financial health of W Series into 2023 and beyond.”

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 third time. Her incredible W Series career includes 11 wins, 10 pole positions and 18 podiums across three seasons (2019, 2021 and 2022 – no racing took place in 2020 due to the pandemic). The organiser comments that W Series has proven the “perfect springboard” to the next step in Chadwick’s motorsport career, a step that will be announced “in due course.”

Unforeseen circumstances

“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,” says Catherine Bond Muir, chief executive officer of W Series. “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 apologise to both them and our fans that we will not be able to go racing there this year.”

Bond Muir shares that W Series Limited “worked hard to raise the required funding to enable us to finish the season,” however the non-arrival of the aforementioned funds and the global economic downturn conspired against this. “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.” The chief executive also flags up a gender-based element to the situation: “It is well-documented that women’s sports receive far less funding than its male counterparts, and W Series is no exception.”

W Series Limited has yet to make a formal announcement regarding the 2023 season. Catherine Bond Muir states that “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.”