W Series was started to give talented female drivers a chance to shine on the biggest stage of motorsports. Its first season back in 2019 acted as a landmark moment for women in motorsports. Unfortunately, earlier this year, the company was forced to go into administration because of financial difficulties, and a failed attempt at raising money. However, out of all F1 drivers, Sky Sports’ Ted Kravitz reports that only Lewis Hamilton stepped up and offered to help the series land back on its feet.
Because of a shortage of money, the 2022 W Series Championship had to end three races early. At that time, nothing about its future was revealed, but there were concerns about where things were headed. Despite their best efforts to raise money and start over earlier this month, they announced that the company was in administration.
W Series brought talents like Jamie Chadwick and Alice Powell into the limelight. In the future, people also expected many more young female drivers to announce themselves on the world stage through the W Series. Out of all the F1 drivers, however, Hamilton was the only one who showed interest in helping them out.
Lewis Hamilton kept an eye on W Series’ developments
According to Ted Kravitz in the Sky Sports F1 podcast, Hamilton was the only F1 star to visit the W Series paddock after it went into administration. He also kept an eye on what was happening. Hamilton noted the names of the companies that were potentially interested in offering financial aid.
“Lewis was to my certain knowledge. The only driver who bothered to come down to the W Series paddock,” said Kravitz. “He went down. He did. I asked him on Friday what he felt still needed to be done. And he was looking at companies coming in. I don’t think W Series fell short by tens of millions of pounds.”
Kravitz also claimed that funding shouldn’t have been a problem for the W Series folding. F1 is more popular than ever with an ever-increasing amount of sponsorship money coming in every single season. Some of it definitely could have helped the W Series out, especially since it wasn’t even a matter of ‘tens of millions of pounds’.
Could Hamilton have saved W Series?
Lewis Hamilton is one of the greatest and most popular F1 drivers of all time. The Briton is also very marketable, and his stardom has landed multiple lucrative sponsorship deals on his plate. All of this combined has led to an estimated net worth of $285,000,000 for the Stevenage-born driver.
As per Ted Kravitz, the financial mess, which W Series was in, was seemingly not huge. Hamilton’s wealth, and the amount of money he can raise because of his status, suggests that he could have helped them if he was given an opportunity.
Meanwhile, for the drivers who used to compete in the W-series, F1 launched a new championship called F1 Academy in 2023. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff’s wife Susie Wolff is heading it, and the first three outings have been a resounding success.
