W SERIES AUTOSPORT SHOW

MAKING THE BOLD FIRST STEP

W Series has faced vociferous criticism since its launch. At Autosport International,

it had the chance to fight its corner

LUCY MORSON

SUTTON

T

hat the launch of the women-only W Series last October provoked such seismic differences of opinion across social media was neither unexpected nor surprising.

In the past, when faced with criticism over its very male-dominated population and the undeniable lack of female participation in top-tier competition, motorsport has been able to fall back on one unique selling point not afforded to the likes of football, tennis or athletics.

Motorsport is one of the few disciplines in the world where men and women can compete on an equal footing at the highest level. And so the introduction of a femaleonly Formula 3-level championship surely seems to undermine all of that.

Perhaps it’s necessary to think about W Series in a wider-world sense and acknowledge the way that the past 18 months can be considered seminal in the renewed push for gender equality, be that on a political front, with the historic Women’s Marches last year, or with the campaigners now found on the entertainment industry’s red carpets as part of the Time’s Up movement.

The cynicism and criticism faced by W Series has been vociferous and at times not without fair reason or concern. Questions over how damaging it could be to have any future W Series champion struggle upon returning to competing against men are valid, particularly considering how hard it is for women to break into motorsport in the first place.

“I spent six months doing research and initially I was sceptical about the idea, for all of the reasons that have been raised,” says W Series CEO and sports lawyer Catherine Bond Muir, who embarked on the project while on an extended career break three years ago.

“But I’d like to bring up this very emotive word that people are using: segregation. We aren’t segregating; what we are doing is creating a new platform for drivers to go on. We’re giving them a free drive to get an experience that otherwise they wouldn’t have had.

“If you look at motorsport at the moment, women are just getting test drives or they’re just a reserve driver. Most importantly what we’re doing is putting 18 women on the grid, full-time, getting driving and racing experience.

“There is an assumption that our women are stopping competing by joining W Series. To ‘go back’ to competing with men would mean they’d have had to have stopped – and they’ve never stopped competing with men.”

Indeed, some competitors will still be competing in mixed-gender championships alongside any W Series commitments. Esmee Hawkey, who

JANUARY 17 2019 AUTOSPORT.COM 39