W Series aims to return in 2023 on F1 support bill

28 comments on “W Series aims to return in 2023 on F1 support bill”

1. 

   bull mello (@bullmello)
   12th October 2022, 1:46

   Good news for W Series!
2. 

   Turch17 (@turch17)
   12th October 2022, 4:08

   I still don’t see the point of this series, why do they have to make it global when there is no money?
   Keep it regional, save the transportation costs.
   Also, they should have a guaranteed seat in F3 for the winner of it, then you really push more diversity in the sport.
   1. 

      UNeedAFinn2Win (@uneedafinn2win)
      12th October 2022, 7:26

      Why would they, the W-Series is not a FIA championship, rather a private company running (out of money) themselves.
      And while F3 is a FIA sanctioned series, the FIA doesn’t run a team. They can’t place anybody anywhere.
      1. 

         Turch17 (@turch17)
         12th October 2022, 9:46

         Because, if FIA wants to push diversity, that would be the only way to give sense to that competition.
         Personally, I don’t care that much who is driving, so I am not interested in a series like W-Series because of the level that is very mediocre. I really don’t understand why it should be interesting when the only “plus” is that under the helmet there is a girl. How does it add to the spectacle?
         1. 

            Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
            12th October 2022, 10:41

            if FIA wants to push diversity, that would be the only way to give sense to that competition.

            It’s not the FIA’s mandate to rescue someone else’s failed venture.
   2. 

      Dex
      12th October 2022, 16:20

      So someone should be forced to hire a driver they didn’t want? I don’t want to live in such society. If they ever attract and develop real talents that will be recognized, but perhaps this championship is not the answer, with its current format and organization behind it. The only positive seems to be the idea itself, to promote female talents, but we’re not talking about the idea, but about the championship.
      1. 

         Turch17 (@turch17)
         13th October 2022, 2:02

         Give them sponsors and they will find a seat, you will not need to “force” anyone.
3. 

   M
   12th October 2022, 7:19

   it should be called G-series. They are the sort of cars used by boys before they make it in to F3.

   Give the W-series V10s!
   1. 

      bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
      12th October 2022, 8:40

      It’d never happen – obviously. But if W Series isn’t under the FIA umbrella, then things like halos etc perhaps don’t apply?

      How many Renault 3.5 V8’s are sat under dust sheets in the back of warehouses that just need a bit of WD40? Or F3000’s? The last GP2 cars were 4L V8’s. Mechachrome probably have some V10’s lying about somewhere.

      They’d be cheap to maintain and interest would sky rocket I imagine.

      For a myriad of reasons it would never happen, it’s probably the third daftest thought I’ve had this morning- but I thought non the less.
      1. 

         Alan Dove
         12th October 2022, 11:03

         Getting a grid of 20 race cars all within a tenth or two of each other is a mammoth task, and that’d be made worse by higher performing engines with a dearth of spare parts and expertise.

         fully spec series don’t have a history of being particularly popular. Indycar, which is part spec, largely lives of the past, where it wasn’t single-chassis, a bit too.
         1. 

            S
            12th October 2022, 11:47

            fully spec series don’t have a history of being particularly popular.

            That’s quite a bold – though somewhat inaccurate – statement.
            Apart from the fact that Indycar are seeing their highest viewing figures this season for 19 years (and think about how many other changes the series went through in that time), it’s a tenuous comparison as historically there weren’t many spec series.

            There aren’t many people who can lay and bake a carbon tub and aero package in their garage that is tested and guaranteed to meet the required minimum safety standards every series requires now (not to mention the FIA certification to prove it). Motorsport became so expensive and safety-conscious that the only way most can go racing now is in spec series using off-the-shelf hardware.

            While engineering buffs and car lovers lament the loss of open technical regulations – everyone who wants close, consistently high quality racing (sport) accepts that spec series are the only way to make that a reality in this day and age.

            F1 is the last mildly-open series left – and it too sees decreasing technical freedom every season for all the same reasons that all the other series moved to spec.
            1. 

               Alan Dove
               12th October 2022, 12:07

               Indy isn’t fully spec. It has different engine manufacturers and allows freedom with certain components like dampers. Also, in the grand scheme of things, Indycar is no where near as popular as F1. It’s a national racing series, with a particularly strong heritage (i.e Indy500 + years of full on competition). That makes it somewhat an outlier.

               Also, the notion that everyone wants close racing is backed up by what? Viewing figures? F1 dominates the landscape and the racing isn’t particularly close. What people seem to want is a good narrative. MotoGP, while having a bit of a blip (without Rossi and memorable protagonists… i.e the ‘narrative’), is fully fledged competition (for the most part), and is still the #1 bike racing series. I can’t think of any respected spec competition in bikes funnily enough.

               Just from a pure marketing perspective how many column inches in Racefans are written between races and seasons? Almost zero… compare to F1. There’s always a story, an update etc…
            2. 

               S
               12th October 2022, 12:37

               Indy’s engines are homologated, just as Super Formula’s are. Competition between them is tightly regulated.
               Indycar will never be as ‘popular’ (and I use inverted commas for a reason) as F1 primarily because it doesn’t aim to be. It is a domestic series, and targets a domestic audience. F1, on the other hand, targets as large a population base as it can travel to – globally. For F1 to work with this concept as they do, it has to make its money in different ways and it has to make much more of it.

               I’d suggest that most people who watch circuit racing prefer close, competitive racing over ‘racing’ that resembles rally stage timing on a tarmac circuit. 20 second intervals between cars aren’t really attractive or enticing to this type of racing enthusiast.
               Last year was perhaps the perfect example. The only significant thing that changed last year over other F1 seasons was how close and competitive it was so consistently (even if only for the win).
               The ‘narrative’ is a product of the vastly superior on-track competition – it does not feed it. There’s no rivalry (for example) without close competition. There’s no story without it. The narrative is the on-track product.

               Of course you “can’t think of any respected competition in bikes” – you probably don’t watch them. They aren’t able to promote themselves as much, nor are they able to run a fully international calendar that directly reaches dozens of countries and potentially hundreds of millions of people…. You want to see the one that everyone is talking about. The one with the most money spent on it.
               Fortunately for us all, MotoGP does prioritise close competition in their administration and regulations in more ways than F1 does. A smaller team in MotoGP can buy the best bike, and use it to beat the team that spent tens of millions designing and developing it, for example.

               This site latches onto whatever is popular at the time in order to get clicks. Clicks mean potential advertising revenue. It’s business.
               Nobody will come here if they only put up results. There’d be no need for comments sections or a forum.
               People don’t want stories and updates instead of competition – they want them to complement it. The better the competition is, the better the stories are, and the more plentiful they can be.

               W-series shows us that you can have a great narrative, but when the on-track product is garbage, you’ve got nothing.
4. 

   superman
   12th October 2022, 8:11

   Time for this nonsense era of forced token diversity and privilege to pass.

   F1 doesn’t need women, cars have traditionally been a male interest and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. We don’t look at netball and say “hey there really should be more men playing this sport!” Boys tend to like fast, loud action sports, girls less so, its all about the nature of our gender, our hormones, and again there’s nothing wrong with that.

   A talented female driver starting in karts will have more than enough support and sponsorship (likely even more than any single male) behind them to rise through the ranks. It’ll happen eventually and naturally, there’s simply no need to force it.

   If they want to support anybody, support ALL sexes and races at the ground level to have opportunities in karting. Thers just as much chance, maybe even more so, that a poor white kid from a council estate will never even get a chance to sit in a fair ground kart let alone a serious race series.

   Support everyone, from every background and the best will rise to the top. Unless of course its not about that (as suspected) and more about box ticking…..
   1. 

      Optimaximal (@optimaximal)
      12th October 2022, 10:03

      Yay, the All Lives Matter guy has signed on… 🙄
      1. 

         TristanIsolde
         12th October 2022, 10:53

         Yeah, lets just right off this guy who’s making reasonable points by attacking his character with no evidence…
         1. 

            Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
            12th October 2022, 10:58

            When someone volunteers his thoughts on “this nonsense era of forced token diversity and privilege”, there’s little plausible deniability left on exactly where this person comes from ideologically.

            “No evidence”? Surely you’re joking.
            1. 

               Josh
               12th October 2022, 13:55

               So you didn’t read past the first sentence then?
            2. 

               Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
               12th October 2022, 14:39

               @Josh

               My point is that if commenters tell you where they stand believe them. Don’t go around like @TristanIsolde pretending they didn’t and @optimaximal was just making stuff up.
   2. 

      MichaelN
      12th October 2022, 11:15

      It is true that the biggest barrier to a motorsport career is money. Even for the vast majority of people in so called wealthy countries, financing a junior career is simply impossible.

      The FIA can alleviate this by creating a Young Talent Tax on its premier series. An extreme increase in the signup fee will allow the FIA to offer grants to young drivers the world over, boys and girls alike.
      1. 

         Alan Dove
         12th October 2022, 11:33

         Then all you do is push costs up the lower down you go, which have already been inflated because of F1 undue influence on karting. If the FIA has a grant system, then you must invest so much in a driver before they are on the ‘grant’ radar. The ‘problem’ is that people think motorsport can be ‘talent’ driven like other sports. It simply can not. Even sports like football are rife with issues surrounding this. And the politics of this would be absolutely horrendous.

         We also have a symbiosis of an engineering competition and a single competitor based one. If you want to focus on the latter, that’s at the cost of the former. And it’s the former that generates the money in the first place.

         But let’s take a look at the figures involved here. I could, in theory, sink 100,000 in a Cadet kart season. Now do that for 10,000 drivers worldwide. That’s £100,000,000 for one year. The costs get higher once you get into the junior categories. That’d a fair amount of cash, to generate what? 1 or 2 drivers per year (as this talent discovery concept is derived from F1 we only need this amount of ‘new’ drivers per year). Over a 10 year period this is a billion pound investment, with no real measurable return. There’s no real need right now because we have the prerequisite number of drivers per year that fill the criteria of being F1 ready. Getting more lower-income people racing makes little to no difference to the folks at F1 HQ.

         Of course the FIA do have the academy trophy which facilitates 50 or so drivers per year to race this one specific championship, but that is not immune to politics, and doesn’t really do much for a drivers career anyway.

         The problem with this whole thing is it’s overly F1-focussed. Focusing on F1 has done nothing but put cost up in categories where you want to encourage more competitors. F1 has caused huge damage to karting. People think F1 is more popular than ever… while kart clubs in the UK are struggling for entries.
   3. 

      M
      12th October 2022, 21:24

      It seems that some here are in denial about the ‘forced diversity’ – and have to resort to name calling when it is noted. Why does it make them feel uncomfortable?

      W-series even has a ‘diversity ambassador’. Diversity in F1 gets labeled as including women, but diversity in W-series will have no men. So a black woman is given the role.

      As a spectacle W-series is, or has been, rather boring.

      In tennis at least you get to look at the legs and lipstick so men tune in as well. For motor racing – give them V10s. THAT would increase the viewership – and the ‘forced diversity’ could continue behind the visors.
5. 

   ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
   12th October 2022, 11:01

   The FIA’s response was to state the bald facts that the use of a recovery vehicle behind the safety car is permitted in the rules. Oh, and to fine Gasly for speeding.

   Yes, this are farce. But this was happening in Japan. Again. So, either the local marshals are too quick and too efficient, or the local marshals are bunch of an idi*t.
   1. 

      M
      12th October 2022, 21:29

      The FIA had a report produced after the Bianchi incident which included recommending having speed limits set and implemented for such occasions by a date which is now – seven years past due.

      The FIA are incompetent.
6. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   12th October 2022, 11:17

   Tost seemingly forgot to mention Daruvala.

   Re The Guardian headline: I doubt.
7. 

   Dan G (@dang)
   12th October 2022, 11:19

   “The FIA knew this was not the case but chose not to inform anyone” — well F1 put it on the TV feed several times; what else could they have done? Verstappen wasn’t going to be champion as things stood (Leclerc in P2) but F1 put the points that were going to be awarded onscreen. The media went into group-think mode, believing their collective interpretation of the sporting regulations, rather than actually reading them.
   1. 

      GT Racer (@gt-racer)
      12th October 2022, 13:18

      @dang The points been put on the broadcast was because those at Biggin Hill knew full points were going to be awarded and were trying to get the message out.

      However most of the broadcasters and others in the media believed this had been done in error so continued pushing the other points systems.
8. 

   GT Racer (@gt-racer)
   12th October 2022, 13:11

   The reason W Series doesn’t have a more prominent position (Or Live coverage) on F1TV is because it isn’t an F1 owned series and the only deal in place is for FOM to produce the world-feed getting the F1TV highlights in return.

   They don’t have full ownership of the broadcast as they do for F1/F2/F3 & even Porsche Supercup because W Series has a deal in place with Whisper who I believe are who are in charge of the commercial rights & distribution of TV coverage.

   W Series essentially has the same sort of deal in place as the domestic categories that may act as F1 support for races that don’t feature F2/F3 or the Supercup (Australian Supercars for example). F1 will produce & provide them with TV coverage but they don’t have full ownership of it so won’t be able to use it without doing deals with the commercial rights owner to air it.

   Regarding the paywall. The original idea was for that not to be the case and the series wanted to air everything on Free platforms including online streaming on Youtube as well as Twitter, Facebook & other social media platforms where that was possible. However Sky stuck a bundle of cash under their noses and they took it, In part because Sky promised to help them with promotion which is why you have seen W Series mentioned on Sky’s F1 coverage more than even F2/F3 this year.

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