How can motor racing be more inclusive? It all comes down to money

Motor racing is a cut-throat business and that truism was proved once again this month with the news that the W Series, the all-female racing championship, would be unable to complete its planned season because it had run out of money. The announcement that the final two rounds – in Austin and Mexico City – would not be taking place came as a blow not just to those directly involved but also to those who had supported the series and its aim of increasing the participation of women in motor sport.

The series CEO and founder Catherine Bond Muir insists that this is not the end and that it will return in 2023. “While we are all incredibly disappointed that this decision has had to be made in the short term, we remain positive about the future of W Series,” she said. “It is well-documented that women’s sports receive far less funding than their male counterparts, and W Series is no exception. We are thankful for the help and support we have received in recent weeks following the news of the financial difficulties we’ve been facing, which has accelerated our fundraising process and given us great optimism as we look to 2023 and beyond.”

Even so there is no doubt that the failure of the series this year – its third full season of competition – is a huge setback and there must be serious questions about its ability to bounce back. That would be a great shame for motor sport in general which is making some strides to becoming more inclusive and securing a future with a broader fan base and a more diverse range of participants. Realising such a future is key to the sport’s survival. To stay relevant, motor sport cannot simply remain a rich man’s realm. It must reach out to all and in doing so see that changing to become more inclusive is not a threat but an opportunity to spread the joys of motor sport to a whole new generation and set of fans and racers.

In fact, since it is in the interest of the entire sport that more women compete, there is an argument that richer series, the FIA or even promoters of money-making forms of racing such as Liberty should support the struggling W Series. As one wag on Twitter put it: “Make Red Bull pay its fine for breaking the cost cap limits in 2021 direct to W Series.”

The problem with this is that once you start picking winners, where do you stop? Ultimately all series must be able to pay their way and stand on their own two feet. Indeed, one of the criticisms aimed at W Series was that it amounted to favouritism and that if women wanted to compete they had to do so on equal terms with men to achieve legitimacy.

“Changing to become more inclusive is not a threat but an opportunity”

I don’t happen to agree with that sentiment. Although I was pleased to see the ‘Iron Dames’ make history in October by becoming the first female crew to win a round of the ELMS, at the top level a system that has seen just a handful of women compete, and none at all in F1 since Giovanna Amati 30 years ago, is clearly not working.

But I also feel that the W Series took on a challenge that it was destined not to beat – and I am not talking about gender.

I remember in 2019 when the W Series was first announced travelling to its London HQ to interview Bond Muir. She was strident in her views and full of optimism (“Success is having a female F1 world champion!”).

But I remember how focused she was on the idea that money was the great divider in motor sport. It was money – or lack of it – that meant girls didn’t progress further up the food chain as investors and sponsors baulked at the increasing costs with a far less certain return on the investment with a female driver than a male. And it was this limiting factor that her vision would strip out of the equation by paying for everything from cars to technicians.

“We are taking away that evil of motor racing: money,” said Bond Muir. “It’s what has led to it becoming a rich boy’s sport. Some really good-quality drivers have come to us because finally they can afford to race.”

I hope that we do have more women in motor sport in the coming years but looking back, and as the W Series has proved, perhaps getting more women into motor sport isn’t the problem; it’s getting more cash to back them.

Motor Sport prides itself on its integrity. Our ownership structure means we have complete editorial independence. The journalists we employ are not only the best writers, they are also the best reporters in the business: tenacious and with a clear mission to ask the questions fans would like to ask if they could.

Sometimes this makes them awkward – especially if you work in the PR department of a race team that we cover. But there is no excuse for banning our reporters from access.

The reason I write this is that Mat Oxley, our MotoGP correspondent, has had this very sanction applied to him by the Ducati MotoGP PR department. He explains the background in a scathing piece which we publish on our website and which should be read by any aspiring journalist, and indeed PR operative.

Suffice to say here that by stopping him from doing his job the Ducati PR team has done a serious disservice to his many thousands of readers, to MotoGP fans and to the wider sporting press, without changing by one degree the questions he asks or the stories we publish.

Joe Dunn, editor
Follow Joe on Twitter @joedunn90

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