After four days of on-track action, during which the 28 drivers vying for a place on the W Series grid completed 3,000 laps of the Circuito de Almeria, the final line-up has been announced. Eighteen women representing 13 nationalities will be making history by racing in the first ever all-female single-seater racing series; four more have been nominated as reserves.
The final 18 includes Australian racing driver Caitlin Wood and I’m very happy for her considering all of the hard work she has put in to get to this point.
“I’m so happy to be a part of this inaugural year, it has been such a great time here in Spain pushing myself to the limits. A full racing season covered [as a paid driver] is what everyone dreams of and it’s finality a reality [for me]. Bring it on, I’m so ready,” said Caitlin via Instagram.
By Wednesday morning W Series Racing Director, Dave Ryan, was confident he had seen enough to rubber-stamp the first 12 drivers to go through to race, which meant that W Series CEO, Catherine Bond Muir, could communicate the good news to them. That allowed Dave to allocate extra time on the 4.2km track to the remaining drivers so that they could show improvements to their handling of the W Series Tatuus F-318 Formula 3 car. Dave was then able to make the final selection, which was announced to the drivers by David Coulthard, W Series Advisory Board Chairman.
“After four intensive days’ testing in Almeria, finishing yesterday, and four equally rigorous days’ trials in Melk in January, as you can imagine we’d amassed a huge amount of data. So our judges, led by Dave Ryan, then crunched that data in order to determine who would be the 18 drivers to contest the first ever single-seater racing series for female drivers: W Series,” said Catherine Bond Muir, W Series CEO.
“To those drivers who didn’t make it through, I offer my commiserations, of course, but I also say ‘well done’ and to the 18 drivers who did make it through, I say ‘big congrats and very well done’, added Catherine.
Now the cars will be taken back to the Hitech GP base at Silverstone in the UK and be prepared for the forthcoming test at the Lausitzring, Germany, on the 14th, 15th and 16th April.
Here is the full list of successful drivers and reserve drivers:
Jamie Chadwick, UK
Sabre Cook, USA
Marta Garcia, Spain
Megan Gilkes, Canada
Esmee Hawkey, UK
Jessica Hawkins, UK
Shea Holbrook, USA
Emma Kimilainen, Finland
Miki Koyama, Japan
Sarah Moore, UK
Tasmin Pepper, South Africa
Vicky Piria, Italy
Alice Powell, UK
Gosia Rdest, Poland
Naomi Schiff, Belgium
Beitske Visser, Netherlands
Fabienne Wohlwend, Liechtenstein
Caitlin Wood, Australia
These are the four reserves for W Series:
Sarah Bovy, Belgium
Vivien Keszthelyi, Hungary
Stephane Kox, Netherlands
Francesca Linossi, Italy
Photographs by W Series.