Some in the past couple of days have questioned why F1 promoter Liberty Media or perhaps a well-funded team such as Red Bull or Mercedes hasn’t stepped in to help W Series get over the line to the end of the season. ‘Come on, put your money where your mouth is on gender diversity!’ On face value, it’s a fair question – although for F1 teams such an outlay would clearly have to be outside the budget cap! Bond Muir said: “In Singapore [where she had given warning of W Series’ perilous financial state] I said we were speaking to a number of people and we have continued those discussions. We’ve had offers from a number of people but the problem is getting money in doesn’t happen at the shake of a money tree and people have got to go through due diligence. We believed up until this weekend there was a possibility for us to get to Austin and we’ve just had to call it because obviously there are deadlines on payments of things. We had to make a pragmatic call.
“Having set up W Series in 2018, I am acutely accustomed to the relentless work that goes on to not only keep our business operational, but also acquire the fundraising and sponsorship to grow our business further. We are grateful for the continued support of our incredible and growing fanbase, and we hope to share positive news regarding the future of W Series in the coming weeks.”
So will the series remain on the F1 undercard next year? “Certainly we do want to still be on the F1 support bill,” she said. “But we need to be mindful of our costs. Sitting where I am now it would be prudent to have more European races, but they are somewhat a scarcity with F1. So we haven’t been told yet what races we have been offered. F1 [will] come back to us and offer us certain races and then we go from there.” She added that W Series could also support other series, as it did with the DTM in its first season.
W Series supported DTM in 2019: a future, cheaper calendar could see a repeat
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What about the much-vaunted prize fund? When asked whether Chadwick would receive her third prize of £500,000, with other drivers receiving their share of the fund too, Bond Muir said: “Where I sit at the moment it is my expectation that that will be paid out. I can’t say 100% but I don’t see any reason why that won’t be the case.”
That will be crucial for W Series’ future. If the promised prize fund is withdrawn, all credibility will be lost – and her answer might be a concern to Chadwick and co.
So how did the drivers respond to the news? “They are drivers and all they want to do is race – and they were incredibly upset. At the same time they were understanding. The feeling that came out of it was ‘this is rubbish, but this is what we’ve dealt with for 20 years. We’ve had contractual promises of money and they haven’t come through’. It was more of a feeling of ‘welcome to our world’. I’ve said we want to keep the DNA of W Series going and it is our intention to still be providing all of the expenses for the drivers.
Champion Chadwick should be able to collect her prize money, says Bond Muir
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“The majority of W Series drivers find it difficult to get any form of sponsorship. We know that’s exactly the same on the male side, but I do think for the women it’s even tougher and you only have to compare what is happening with us to all other female sport. The going is tough. The only sport that seems to have had any sort of parity with men’s sport is tennis and that is because Billie-Jean King has been fighting the fight for 50 years. Obviously football in this country has had a massive fillip winning the Euros and then beating the world champions this week. They are getting the audiences. We are getting the TV audiences.
“I’m not comparing ourselves to football because they have been going a lot longer than we have, but my overall belief is women’s sport will continue to grow exponentially. What has been announced today is just recognition that life is still tough.”
Now Bond Muir must regain the inevitable lost momentum. Perhaps if Chadwick or one of the other frontrunners could graduate and show a clear path to a higher level – not necessarily F1, although clearly that would be ideal – it might make the sell a little easier. But as we have seen, that in itself is a tall order and clearly it’s a stretch for the series itself to financially back individual careers further up the chain.
Bond Muir and all who have skin in the W Series game have their work cut out to come back from this. Then again, that doesn’t mean that they can’t – or that they won’t.