New all-female single seater class "W Series" to launch next year!

The W Series, a new international all-female single-seater racing category, is set to launch next year as the class should help women worldwide for their push to make it into Formula One.

The new category will use F3-spec cars from Tatuus and has a massive backing from former F1 driver and race winner David Coulthard. 

The series, which will consist of six rounds with each race lasting half an hour, will start in May 2019. The amount of rounds in a season is expected to expand over the years, as the sport grows as a brand and gains fans worldwide.

The winner of the championship will win $500,000 and the total prize pot consists of $1.5 million, with each prize being help for drivers to help fund a potential F1-career in the future.

“We at W Series firmly believe that female and male racing drivers can compete with one another on equal terms given the same opportunity," Coulthard was quoted by Motorsport.com.

“At the moment, however, women racing drivers tend to reach a ‘glass ceiling’ at around the GP3/Formula 3 level on their learning curve, often as a result of a lack of funding rather than a lack of talent.

“That’s why an all-new all-female single-seater motor racing series is required – W Series – to establish a competitive and constructive motorsport habitat in which our drivers will be able to equip themselves with the necessary skill-set eventually to move on up to existing high-level mainstream racing series and compete with the best male drivers on equal terms.”

Adrian Newey, Red Bull Racing's legendary technical designer in F1 who is regarded as the best in the business when it comes to building a chassis, also believes that women are more than able to compete in F1, given the opportunity to climb the ladder in racing.

“I believe that the reason why so few women have so far raced successfully at the highest levels against men is a lack of opportunity rather than a lack of capability,” Newey said.

“And that’s why I’m so pleased to be involved in W Series, to do what I can to contribute to creating a platform on which women drivers can improve by racing one another and from which they may then springboard their careers forward and, yes, ultimately race and indeed eventually beat their male counterparts.”