W Series “looking at all possibilities” for season two calendar

Organisers of the W Series are looking at all possibilities surrounding the calendar for the 2020 season.

The inaugural season has seen the all-women’s series support the DTM touring car series, an arrangement that will continue in 2020. Beyond that, W Series are hoping to expand the calendar in some way for next season. Reuters reported in May that the series could link up with Formula 1 in the future.

Speaking to Motorsport Broadcasting at a Whisper event last week, W Series CEO Catherine Bond-Muir said”We’ll definitely be with DTM for another six races next year.”

“We’ve not yet agreed any other races around the world, but we’re looking at America, Asia, maybe more races in Europe, we’re looking at all possibilities,” Bond Muir added.

At the half way stage of the first season, Bond-Muir is happy with how the series has gone down with fans so far. “We’ve got fantastic audience interest and engagement,” she said.

“I think we’ve knocked it out of the park, with the reach we’ve got through our television deals, we’re in over 340 million households across the world. We’ve got people watching the programming, and we know from social media people absolutely love the racing.”

“Three years ago, when we had a blank sheet of paper, I don’t everthink we could have imagined that we could have appeared in so many households in our first year.”

> Looking back at W Series’ inaugural race

“Those deals were done before we raced a car. Hopefully we can grow on that next year, when people realise what we’re producing is actually really good motor racing.”

In the UK, W Series airs live on Channel 4, whilst Whisper produce the global television feed for the series.

Commenting on the series, Whisper CEO Sunil Patel added “I’m pretty selfish when it comes to W Series. I’ve got a nine-year-old girl who’s grown up with me watching Formula 1, so have a vested interest. She knows the grid back to front, she questions me about speed limits in the pit lane, asking me what tyres Lewis is on.”

“But when I told her there’s going to be a women’s racing series, she was ecstatic, she’s been researching which drivers to follow and so on. That is a snapshot of the transformative effect that W Series is having.”

“We’re covering it, we can help build the characters,” Patel told me. “W Series is already having an impact becauseit’s helping create role models for littlegirls out there, which they didn’t have before. ”

The next round of the W Series takes place this Saturday (6th July) at the Norisring.