W Series races cancelled, Chadwick champion

W Series was meant to race as the support category to two more F1 races this season, with a round at the Circuit of the Americas and two in Mexico City. But with all three flyaway rounds now cancelled W Series has confirmed they will not be replaced.

In a statement released yesterday (10^th October) W Series confirmed that funding from an unnamed investor had failed to materialise despite a contract being in place. This funding was expected to secure the “long-term” future of the series, but without it the championship has decided to focus on raising the cash needed, and cutting costs by not flying the teams to America.

The early ending means that Chadwick, whose five wins in a row at the start of the season had made the championship almost a foregone conclusion, is crowned as the series’ winner for the third year in a row. After three seasons and 21 races Chadwick has a 52 per cent win record in W Series, with only four other drivers managing to win races in that time.

Hinting at a future away from the championship, the statement from W Series said that Chadwick’s success was “the perfect springboard to the next step in her motorsport career, to be announced in due course”.

Speaking after the announcement Catherine Bond Muir, the founder and CEO of W Series said: “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.

“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 have worked hard to raise the required funding to enable us to finish the season. Unfortunately, it was not possible to do this in the short time frame required following the failure of contracted funds to arrive and the global economic downturn.

“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.

“While we aren’t in a position to make a formal announcement yet, there are many positive conversations ongoing and all parties share our passion for and belief in our mission to provide our incredible field of women drivers a platform to showcase their talents and to race in front of enthusiastic fans all around the world. 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.”