Hamilton: F1 must step in to save W Series

Lewis Hamilton has F1 should step up to help the W Series after the female-only championship had to end its 2022 season early due to funding issues

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Hamilton feels F1 should guarantee W Series's future

W Series

Lewis Hamilton has said Formula 1 needs to intervene to help the troubled W Series, emphasising that there is not enough “representation across the board” for women in the world championship.

The all-female support series’s future hangs in the balance after a major investor failed to provide the funding promised, with this year’s championship eventually called to a halt early and CEO Catherine Bond Muir scouring the world for new funding.

Hamilton has been a vocal and active supporter of greater equality throughout F1 with his Mission44 initiative and Hamilton Commission launched to drive change in the sport.

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When the seven-time world champion was asked about whether F1 should step in to help a championship like the W Series, he was unequivocal.

“100 per cent,” he said. “Particularly the W series. There has not been enough focus on women in sport the whole of the F1’s life and there’s not enough emphasis on it now.

“They’re not magnifying enough the great work that has been done there. There’s not enough representation across the board within the industry.”

The W Series, which declared Jamie Chadwick a three-time champion after its early curtailment, has come in for some criticism for segregating female drivers, but Hamilton said he felt it was a necessary women to get into the sport.

“There’s not really a pathway for those young amazing drivers to even get to F1, 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,” he said.

“I think we need to be doing more. With F1 and Liberty doing so well, it’s not a lot for them to be able to help out in that space.

“The work I’m trying to do with Mercedes, for example, we’re trying to get like 8000 young girls into the sport – but every team should be doing that.”

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Hamilton has previously said F1 needs to do “way more” to provide future opportunities for drivers moving on from W Series

W Series

Hamilton has also previously commented on the difficulties for high-achieving W Series drivers to move on to higher championships after being successful in the female-only category.

“For them, I really feel it is great that we have the W Series, but we as a sport need to do way more for young girls getting into the sport and for these women, if there is no progression from there, from W Series,” he said after visiting the drivers in Hungary.

“It has been three years, so we need to really work on trying to create something. When you win that, do you progress into GP2 [F2] or whatever it may be?

“We can definitely do a lot more to support those girls.”

Chadwick looks set to still get her prize money, and could use the money for an Indy Lights driver, the second tier of IndyCar – she is currently testing for Andretti Autosport.

As Muir told Motor Sport however, she is still confident its future can be secured.

“The upside of it is that people have come out of the woodwork,” she said.

“No-one realised that we were looking for funding in the way that we were, so we had advisors that were based in the States and we were predominantly looking in the US. So unquestionably while this isn’t a happy or great experience it’s actually helped us quite a lot.”