W Series was an all-female single-seater racing championship. It was held over a total of three seasons in 2019, 2021 and 2022 before the championship fell into administration and later liquidated, with a planned season in 2020 cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All three editions were won by Jamie Chadwick.
The W Series was publicly launched on 10 October 2018, following the circulation of rumours about the creation of a female-only racing series beginning in November 2017. It was created in response to the lack of female drivers progressing to the highest levels of motorsport, particularly Formula One. Scottish businessman Sean Wadsworth was confirmed as the series main financier, with Catherine Bond Muir – a solicitor who helped facilitate the sale of Chelsea F.C. to Roman Abramovich – named as CEO. Other shareholders included a number of prominent members of the motorsport community, including former F1 driver David Coulthard and engineer Adrian Newey. Former McLaren sporting director Dave Ryan was confirmed as the series race director.
The inaugural season was run in support of the 2019 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, a touring car championship based in Germany, and all cars were operated by Hitech Grand Prix. It consisted of six rounds that were held at six different circuits, two in Germany and four in other European countries. Prior to the season starting, 61 drivers were longlisted to appear in an evaluation with the intention of finding the best 18 to race in the series full-time, with 54 showing up. This was then cut to a 28-driver shortlist of drivers who would get to test the competitions' Tatuus–Alfa Romeo F3 T-318 cars before the final 18 permanent drivers and two reserves were confirmed.
The 2019 season began at the Hockenheimring, with series' favourite Jamie Chadwick dominating proceedings. Marta García impressed on debut with a podium as did Miki Koyama, climbing from 17th on the grid to finish 7th. Emma Kimiläinen was injured in a clash with Megan Gilkes that required her to sit out the next two rounds, and she was replaced with both reserve drivers – Sarah Bovy and Vivien Keszthelyi. Beitske Visser beat Chadwick off the front row in the second race at Zolder and lead from start to finish, ahead of a battling Chadwick and Alice Powell. Fabienne Wohlwend claimed pole position at Misano, but made a slow start and collided with Powell at the first corner – the Liechtensteiner made the finish in 3rd behind winner Chadwick and runner-up Visser. García then claimed a lights-to-flag win in the championship's first street race in Nuremberg, with Kimiläinen finishing fifth on her return – and the Finn backed that up with a win and the series' first Grand Slam at the next round in Assen after an early-race duel with Powell. An experimental non-championship was held on the Assen weekend, with inexperienced and under-fire Gilkes – who was benched from the Nuremberg round for a lack of pace – beating Powell by 0.003 seconds in an incident-packed heat. Chadwick and Visser were the only drivers in contention for the title in the season finale at Brands Hatch, with Chadwick taking the inaugural championship despite finishing the race behind Visser – with Powell claiming her maiden win on home soil.
The calendar for the 2020 season was announced in early 2020, with six European rounds in support of the DTM and two events in North America supporting Formula One. The initial drivers' list confirmed that the top twelve finishers from the 2019 championship were automatically qualified for the 2020 series, joined by six new recruits from a scaled down evaluation held in September 2019. Series-wide sponsorship was confirmed from mobile phone manufacturer ROKiT. The 2020 season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a 10-event eSports series was held on the iRacing platform in its place. Beitske Visser won the eSports league with a round to spare having won 11 of the 30 races.
The 2021 season featured eight races, and was run in support of the 2021 Formula One World Championship. Initially planned to be held at eight separate venues, the proposed finale in Mexico was cancelled after Formula One postponed the parent Grand Prix and it was replaced with a second race at an event in Austin. The series switched their technical support from Hitech to Double R Racing, operating as "Fine Moments", and launched a 'team' system based around commercial entrants for financial and identification purposes. Powell took a wire-to-wire win in a chaotic first race in Spielberg that saw reigning champion Chadwick torpedoed by Jessica Hawkins, however Chadwick struck back to win the second round at the Red Bull Ring a week later with 17-year-old rookie Irina Sidorkova finishing second. Powell then claimed her second win of the season at Silverstone having trailed Wohlwend for most of the race, before Chadwick took a crushing victory by over 10 seconds in Budapest.
The following round at Spa-Francorchamps was overshadowed by a six-car pile-up in qualifying, resulting in Visser and Ayla Ågren withdrawn from the race – Kimiläinen claimed her first win of the season in torrential rain ahead of Chadwick and Marta García. Powell won her third race of the season in a processional affair at Zandvoort that saw her draw level on points with Chadwick at the top of the table heading into the final round. Reserve driver Abbi Pulling claimed a shock pole position at the final round in Austin before Chadwick won both races to successfully defend her title. The season ended in minor controversy after Abbie Eaton fractured her T4 vertebra following a collision with a sausage kerb in the first race of the weekend.
The championship continued to be run in support of Formula One in 2022, and was initially scheduled to feature eight races as well. The calendar was later expanded to feature ten races, including double-headers to start and finish the season. The top eight drivers from the 2021 season automatically qualified for the 2022 season, including the surprise return of dual-champion Chadwick with support from Caitlyn Jenner. A further five drivers were retained from the previous season, joined by five rookies – Sidorkova was scheduled to return for a sophomore season, however was dropped following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Nerea Martí scored an upset pole position for the first race in Miami. Kimiläinen led most of a race that had been interrupted by a red flag and multiple Safety Cars before a gearbox problem on the final lap handed victory to Chadwick. Chadwick then backed it up with victory in the second race, as Martí was controversially demoted to third behind Powell for an unseen incident. Chadwick then scored her third win of the season in Barcelona despite coming under late pressure from Pulling, before cantering to a sixth-straight win overall at Silverstone following a stop-go penalty for Powell and a late clash for fellow podium finishers Pulling and Kimiläinen. Chadwick's run then looked threatened by a grid penalty at Circuit Paul Ricard following a qualifying infringement, but she recovered to take the lead in the opening 3 corners and yet another win as Eaton crashed heavily at the start and team-mates Marta García and Wohlwend engaged in a fierce battle for sixth. Chadwick's reign was finally toppled in a damp race at the Hungaroring, qualifying fifth and finishing second behind Powell in an incident-packed race.
After Budapest it was reported that the series was facing significant financial difficulties, as reported in company accounts filed with the UK Companies House on 5 September 2022, which showed that it had net liabilities of over £7.5 million to 31 December 2021, with debts to a number of creditors; including Whisper, the media production company owned by Jake Humphrey and David Coulthard, and Velocity Experience, the company that provides hospitality services to the series. Doubts were expressed whether it would be able to complete the 2022 season. The sixth round of the season was moved from Suzuka to Singapore due to "operational challenges". A tropical storm affected qualifying and resulted in a jumbled grid, leaving Chadwick only eighth; the Briton subsequently crashed out of the race whilst trying to make up the lost ground, with Visser claiming just her second W Series race win.