As the old cliché goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and this has never been truer than in the case of W Series. Welcoming women into the F1 paddock was a brilliant initiative, however, in practice, W Series could not make this a reality. The cars were underpowered, the teams had little to no racing pedigree, and the only prize offered to the champion was half a million dollars. To put a cherry on top, the series had just one champion over its three seasons in the form of Jamie Chadwick, who has since only managed a move to Indy NXT despite being a member of the Williams Racing Academy.
Since folding in 2022, W Series has widely been considered a failure, until F1 Academy was announced in November, a new FIA-sponsored all-female series. It will be contested by five existing F2 and F3 teams making up a 15 car grid and will race at a series of well respected circuits across Europe, the season culminating in a season finale at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. The cost of competing in the series will also be subsidised by Formula One to the tune of €150,000 per driver in order to make racing more accessible.
F1 Academy has stated that its intentions are to run alongside W Series and provide drivers with a direct route into official Formula One junior series, though there has been no indication that W Series intend to or are financially capable of running a championship in 2023.
While it may not be a direct replacement for W Series, F1 Academy will certainly have big shoes to fill. W Series was a hotly anticipated series upon its initial announcement in 2018, though its promises to help female drivers make their way into official junior formulae were never fulfilled, and its ultimate financial collapse heralded a quiet end to a competition which never made as much noise as it was intended to. The FOM-backed F1 Academy should have the financial support to at the very least survive as a series, though its promise to get female drivers into Formula 3 will be under heavy scrutiny. Its an initiative which fans worldwide want to succeed; F1 Academy just has to deliver on its promise.
