Women-only motor racing championship to join F1 schedule
Tie-up with W Series comes as motorsport steps up efforts to improve diversity
Formula One will host races staged by the first women-only motor racing championship in a move aimed at shedding the sport’s billionaire boys’ club image.
W Series, which launched last year, has signed a multiyear partnership that will start in 2021 with eight of its races to be held in “support” slots to F1 Grands Prix.
The tie-up is part of efforts by F1 to improve diversity in motorsport and comes after the launch of its #WeRaceAsOne initiative against racism and inequality following the killing of George Floyd by police in the US in May.
Ross Brawn, managing director of motorsport at F1, said the tie-up underlined the group’s commitment to “building greater diversity across the sport”.
F1, which is owned by US company Liberty Media, is seeking to attract wider audiences and broaden its appeal to sponsors. F1 had acknowledged even before the pandemic that the sponsorship market had been slower than it had envisaged.
The racing series is looking to bounce back from the pandemic, which delayed the start of the season and led to the cancellation or postponement of several races. F1 said last week that third-quarter revenues had fallen 6 per cent year on year to $597m, as fans were barred from attending the vast majority of its races in the period.
The tie-up marks a significant step for the W Series, which was forced to scrap its second season because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Catherine Bond Muir, chief executive of W Series, declined to provide specific financial details of the contract, but said partnering with F1 would bring an “immediate economic benefit” to the competition by giving its sponsors a greater profile and international reach.
She added that the pandemic had a “greater impact” on women’s sport than on men’s because of a “rush” to protect the most financially valuable sports properties. W Series, whose shareholders put up £20m to fund its first year, turned to esports, or competitive video gaming, to showcase its brand during the pandemic.
“It saddened me to see the way that men’s sport has been prioritised,” Ms Bond Muir said. If the same thing happened in 10-20 years’ time I don’t think women’s sport would be so affected because I believe women’s sport by then will continue to grow and have a relative greater importance than it does at the moment.”
She said she hoped that the F1 tie-up would encourage more girls to get involved in motorsport and potentially result in women racing in F1. The W Series was won last year by Jamie Chadwick, best known as the first female and youngest winner of the British GT Championship.
Italian Maria Grazia “Lella” Lombardi was the most recent woman to compete in an F1 Grand Prix in 1976.
Nico Rosberg, the 2016 F1 world champion, separately told the Financial Times that he would like to see women take part again, more than four decades later.
“There’s no reason that’s not possible,” Mr Rosberg said. “There’s fewer women trying to make their way there, so it just takes longer to find those special talents.”
W Series’ major shareholder is Sean Wadsworth, who founded headhunters Frank Recruitment. Other investors include Ms Bond Muir and former F1 driver David Coulthard.