W Series’ second season has become the latest victim of the pandemic. The all-female championship has announced it will not hold any races in 2020.
It was due to begin in Russia last weekend and finish in Mexico on October 31st, supporting several DTM races and two Formula 1 rounds.The series organisers announced the cancellation of their 2020 programme on Thursday. However they also confirmed plans to hold Formula 1 support races at the United States and Mexican Grand Prix in 2021.
W Series CEO Catherine Bond Muir indicated the championship could support other F1 races next year as well.
“After the resounding success of W Series’ debut season in 2019, our decision not to stage on-track races until 2021 is not one that has been taken lightly,” she said.
“However, now that we have taken the very difficult but ultimately unavoidable decision to end any uncertainty surrounding our 2020 plans, we will focus our energies clearly on 2021, when we will resume our on-track racing programme, bigger and better than ever before.”
Formula 1’s managing director of motorsport Ross Brawn said it was a “big disappointment for all of us” that W Series would not be able to support this year’s championship.
“W Series has had an incredible impact on the world of motorsport, and we were excited to have them join our schedule this year,” he said.
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CC
5th June 2020, 7:32
I see those of you who are staying silent, some of you the biggest posters on this site yet you stay silent in the midst of injustice. Not a sign from anybody watching what of course is a male dominated sport.
I would have thought by now you would see why this happens and say something about it but you can’t stand alongside me. Just know I know who you are and I see you.
#wseriesmatters
cm (@cm-cm)
5th June 2020, 8:57
epic! came for news, left with kek!
CC
6th June 2020, 6:49
Happy someone got the joke!
luigismen (@luigismen)
5th June 2020, 19:41
Maybe it can be seen as an “injustice”, but most probably they cancelled it because it is not worth the money invested or spend to run the series compared to the income.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
5th June 2020, 21:24
You’re right to raise the issue of gender inequality in motor racing. As far as I can tell sim-racing is gender neutral, so one would expect F1’s version to have both women and men competing, but it doesn’t. You need to direct the question to F1 teams as to why they are excluding women professional racing car drivers from being their sim-racing drivers but include male cricket players, male football players, etc.
I guess one should have expected some of the better know F1 people to have said something too.
Balue (@balue)
6th June 2020, 6:28
Touché..
MacLeod (@macleod)
5th June 2020, 8:16
Not sure why they cancel the 2020 season. Looks like the dates are not good or they don’t want to spend the (extra) money which brings the corona era with it.
anon
6th June 2020, 14:41
@macleod other series have also cancelled their races as well – the World Endurance Championship got rid of their split season structure and cancelled the races which would have formed the 2020 part of the 2020-2021 season, whilst the Indy Lights championship has also been cancelled for 2020 too.
Quite a few series are in a situation where they’ve chosen not to formally cancel their 2020 seasons, but have delayed that decision by postponing most of their races. I would not be surprised if we see further cancellations later in the year if the current restrictions on travel persist for a few more months or if there is a tightening on quarantine measures if there is a second wave of infections.