F1 to Design All-Women Series with 2023 Debut

It’s coming — Formula One is working on launching an all-women championship series.

Even as the W Series currently exists, this new series is going to influence a younger group of drivers, ages 16 to 22 to the sport. The W Series faced financial difficulties this season, resulting the cancelation of the last three races on the 2022 calendar to focus on securing next year’s funding.

According to ESPN reporters, the all-women series would give a clearer path into the current pyramid of Formula Three and Formula Two. Formula 1 hopes the series will be running by the beginning of the 2023 season.

Providing Equal Opportunity in F1

The reported news comes after Lewis Hamilton was strongly criticized F1 on Thursday for not helping the W Series. It was launched in fall 2018 as a free-to-enter championship that reduces financial barriers — while providing equal opportunity to help women climb the ladder of motorsports to F1, according to their website.

It’s been a long time as a woman has not competed in F1 since Lella Lombardi in 1976.

“There has not been enough focus on women in sport, the whole of Formula One’s life, and there’s not enough emphasis on it now. And they’re not magnifying enough the great work that is being done there. There is not enough representation across the board, within the industry,” stated Hamilton on Thursday ahead of the U.S. Grand Prix. “And there’s not really a pathway for those young, amazing drivers to even get to Formula One, and then you have some people who say we’re never going to see a female F1 driver ever. So that’s not a good narrative to be putting out.

“So I think we need to be doing more, and with the organization, with Formula One and Liberty [Media] doing so well it’s not a lot for them to be able to help out in that space. And I think we need to be doing more to encourage … I mean, in the work I’m trying to do with Mercedes for example, we’re trying to get like 8,000 young girls into the sport—but every team should be doing that.”

Likely or Unlikely?

Formula One CEO Stefano Domenicali said in August that it is very unlikely there will be a woman driver in F1 within the next five years. Looking at the situation realistically, he noted, ” Domenicali added at the time, “I don’t see—unless something that will be like a sort of meteorite coming into the earth—a girl in Formula One in the next five years.”