Star women drivers want F1 feeder series changed

Since its inception in 2019, no W Series driver has graduated to the FIA Formula 3 Championship or FIA Formula 2 Championship.

UK-born driver Jamie Chadwick has won all three seasons to date. 

She was drafted into Formula 1 team Williams and its development program, but no opportunities to race, let alone test, look likely to come any time soon.

In its first year, W Series offered a $1.5 million prize pool including a top prize of $500,000 with the remaining dividends portioned out to the rest of the drivers.

Now, the series is suffering funding problems and cancelled its final two events in 2022 in the United States and Mexico.

Porsche Sprint Challenge driver Courtney Prince believes the W Series can only survive if the category eventually promotes a driver into higher levels of the sport.

Funding female drivers is imperative, but how it’s done ultimately matters most, she said.

“With the W Series, it’s a fishbowl at the moment,” Prince told Wide World of Sports.

“No one is going anywhere. Like Jamie Chadwick, she’s won it for three years. Yes, she might get a test drive in F1, and that’s awesome, but it’s a fishbowl, there’s no path out of it. 

“If there was a path out of it, I would say that’s awesome, jump in, do that for a few years, and go out into something, but there hasn’t been anything really going on with it. 

“They’re having financial troubles now, cancelling the last few rounds. We’ll see how it goes, but I definitely prefer racing men.

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“At some point, you’re going to have to race the guys,” she added.

“I think a strategy would be funding the top few girls in each country, or something like that. Get them up there, pushing with the boys up the front. 

“The more budget, the more testing, the better you are. I think that would be an awesome idea.”

Fellow Porsche racer Madeline Stewart said she had an opportunity to join the W Series but opted not to out of principle. 

Like Prince, Stewart said separating the men from the women does little to help the latter group.

“I appreciate what they’re trying to do, but I don’t necessarily think it was the right way to do it,” Stewart explained.

“I think there are some fantastic female drivers over in Europe and I believe that they should have been helped with funding. 

“I think Jamie Chadwick is exceptional and she actually should have been funded into Formula 2 and then helped through, rather than trying to spend money on a whole category for females, which I don’t believe is necessary. 

“I think there are fewer females in the sport because young girls don’t know enough about it. Bringing awareness to them is a big thing to start off with. 

“Percentage-wise, there’s less, so there’s always going to be fewer at the highest level. They need help with funding like everyone else.”

One initiative led by Kelly Moss will see one female racer win a scholarship to compete in Porsche Carrera Cup North America.

“There are some amazing things going on in America at the moment,” Stewart added.

“Kelly Moss has just funded a female into Carrera Cup for next year. 

“That is probably the way to go about it rather than a whole category separating females, which I really don’t think is necessary.”

On the eve of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Formula 1 announced it would be starting its own all-female racing series in 2023, dubbed The F1 Academy.

The Formula 4-based series will feature five teams, each with three drivers with three races per weekend held across seven events

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