W Series Returns for Season Three in Miami

Caitlin Carroll
May 5, 2022
3 min read

After W Series was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, its highly anticipated return in 2021 saw 18 drivers take on eight races around the globe. Now, it is back for season three, kicking off at the Miami International Autodrome this weekend for the championship’s first double-header. This year’s 18 confirmed drivers will take on 10 races over the season at eight supported Grand Prix weekends including the USA, Spain, UK, France, Hungary, Japan, and Mexico.

2022 Drivers

The previous W Series season saw reigning champion Jamie Chadwick defend her title after leading every lap at the double-headers final race at the Circuit of the Americas, coming away with 159 points. With the top eight qualifiers from the 2021 drivers’ standings automatically securing a seat for the championship’s third season, Alice Powell, Emma Kimiläinen, Nerea Martí, Sarah Moore, Fabienne Wohlwend, Abbi Pulling and Beitske Visser will be joining Chadwick on the grid for the season opener in Miami.

The 10 remaining seats were decided by W Series Race Director Dave Ryan and his team following on from pre-season tests at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Barcelona and the Inde Motorsports Ranch in Arizona.

Out of the drivers that impressed during pre-season tests, five will make their W Series debut in Miami: Tereza Babickova, Bianca Bustamante, Chloe Chambers, Emely De Heus and Juju Noda.

2022 Teams

As well as new drivers, W Series’ 2022 season will see five brand new teams. New team Jenner Racing is founded by Olympic athlete Caitlyn Jenner and has the intention to “raise awareness of equal rights whilst promoting the many talented females competing in the male-dominated world of motorsports”.

Also joining the 2022 grid is Click2Drive Bristol Street Motors, coinciding with the brand’s new #TypicalWomanDriver campaign which highlights the importance of the roles that women drivers have in our society, from being blue-light first responders to air force pilots and lorry drivers.

There will be two cryptocurrency-backed teams joining Jenner Racing and Click2Drive Bristol Street Motors. The teams are CortDAO (Community Owned Racing Team Decentralized Autonomous Organization) and Quantfury. Quantfury aims to promote courage, authenticity and the relentless pursuit of excellence whilst CortDAO is built around a “community of motorsport fans and crypto pioneers who want to drive social change and push for reform in motorsports.”

New entrant W Series Academy is an initiative seeking to support young female drivers coming into motorsport and their progression. Sirin Racing is a team joining W Series with the aim to inspire people to follow their dreams and empower them to succeed. ‘Sirin’ in some Asian cultures translates to ‘The Greatest Grace’ with the view that “with grace on your side, you can never fail”.

PUMA exists to connect PUMA’s Women’s platform ‘She Moves Us’, celebrating females who inspire other women through various sports and cultures around the world, by bringing the fastest women in the world together on the W Series racetrack.

Racing X team represents passion, bravery and ambition. It is a team challenging the norm and pushing boundaries to allow for strong women to continue breaking the bias within motorsport racing.

The final new team on the grid is Scuderia W, meaning ‘stable’ or ‘team’ and is W Series’ house team, embodying motorsport automobile racing as “Italian teams incorporate the term in their names”.