2020 W Series

The 2020 W Series was a planned motor racing championship that was scheduled to be the second W Series season. The championship was to be exclusively open to female racing drivers as a Formula Regional-level racing series.^[1]

The planned championship season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic,^[2] and a 10-event eSports league for female racing drivers only was held on the iRacing platform in its place.^[3] The league was ultimately won by Beitske Visser.^[4]

Driver selection

The top twelve finishers from the 2019 championship were automatically eligible to compete in the 2020 season,^[5] leaving eight vacancies in the driver line up.^[6] Forty new drivers applied to take part in the season;^[6] however, only fourteen of those took part in the first test which took place between 16 and 18 September 2019 at the Circuito de Almería, Spain.^[7][8]

Applications

The following eight drivers competed in the 2019 W Series but did not automatically qualify for 2020:

The following eight drivers attempted to qualify for the 2020 W Series, having not competed in 2019 but were unsuccessful or elected not to race in W Series:^[9]

Qualified drivers

No.	Drivers
5	Fabienne Wohlwend
7	Emma Kimiläinen
11	Vicky Piria
17	Ayla Ågren
19	Marta García
21	Jessica Hawkins
22	Belén García
26	Sarah Moore
27	Alice Powell
31	Tasmin Pepper
32	Nerea Martí
37	Sabré Cook
44	Abbie Eaton
51	Irina Sidorkova
55	Jamie Chadwick
85	Miki Koyama
95	Beitske Visser
97	Bruna Tomaselli
Source:[10]

Calendar

The series was scheduled to continue supporting the 2020 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters for most races.^[11][12] Races at Hockenheimring, Circuit Zolder and Misano World Circuit were replaced by races at Igora Drive, Anderstorp Raceway and Autodromo Nazionale di Monza. On 16 January 2020, the series announced it would stage races in the Americas, operating as a support category for the United States and Mexico City Grands Prix.^[13] On 4 June 2020, the series announced that it would not hold on-track races for the 2020 season, with Formula 1 Managing Director of Motorsports, Ross Brawn, stating "It is a big disappointment for all of us that due to the difficulties presented by COVID-19 the events will not take place."^[14]

Round	Circuit	Date
1	Igora Drive	30 May
2	Anderstorp Raceway	13 June
3	Autodromo Nazionale di Monza	27 June
4	Norisring	11 July
5	Brands Hatch	23 August
6	TT Circuit Assen	5 September
7	Circuit of the Americas	24 October
8	Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez	31 October

eSports League

The inaugural and ultimately only season of the W Series eSports League virtual championship was announced on 7 May 2020. The league partnered with Logitech G, Beyond Entertainment, and iRacing to contest 10 virtual events with all drivers competing in digital versions of the Tatuus Formula Renault 2.0 race car.^[15] Events consisted of three races, three heats of 15mins each with the second being a reverse-grid race, and were broadcast with a week delay on YouTube. All 18 drivers who qualified to race in the on-track championship plus the three reserve drivers partook in the sim racing series, with guest wildcards employed late in the season as some drivers returned to normal racing in other categories. Beitske Visser clinched the championship title with a round to spare, winning 11 races and achieving pole position 12 times.^[16]

Calendar and results

Round	Circuit	Broadcast date	Race winners	Source
1	Autodromo Nazionale di Monza	11 June	R1: Beitske Visser R2: Gosia Rdest R3: Beitske Visser	[17]
2	Circuit of the Americas	18 June	R1: Beitske Visser R2: Emma Kimiläinen R3: Beitske Visser	[18]
3	Brands Hatch	25 June	R1: Beitske Visser R2: Irina Sidorkova R3: Irina Sidorkova	[19]
4	Autódromo José Carlos Pace	2 July	R1: Beitske Visser R2: Irina Sidorkova R3: Beitske Visser	[20]
5	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps	9 July	R1: Marta García R2: Tasmin Pepper R3: Marta García	[21]
6	Watkins Glen International	16 July	R1: Beitske Visser R2: Irina Sidorkova R3: Marta García	[22]
7	Suzuka International Racing Course	23 July	R1: Marta García R2: Belén García R3: Marta García	[23]
8	Mount Panorama Circuit	30 July	R1: Marta García R2: Tasmin Pepper R3: Beitske Visser	[24]
9	Nürburgring (Nordschleife)	6 August	R1: Beitske Visser R2: Gabriela Jílková R3: Beitske Visser	[25]
10	Silverstone Circuit	13 August	R1: Marta García R2: Sarah Moore R3: Marta García	[26]
Source:[27]

Championship standings

Pos.	Driver	Pts
1	Beitske Visser	439
2	Marta García	423
3	Irina Sidorkova	331
4	Nerea Martí	317
5	Tasmin Pepper	305
6	Caitlin Wood	303
7	Ayla Ågren	224
8	Belén García	212
9	Sarah Moore	205
10	Naomi Schiff	161
11	Fabienne Wohlwend	145
12	Alice Powell	137
13	Jessica Hawkins	135
14	Abbie Eaton	124
15	Emma Kimiläinen	101
16	Gosia Rdest	100
17	Bruna Tomaselli	86
18	Sabré Cook	68
19	Miki Koyama	53
20	Vittoria Piria	39
21	Jamie Chadwick	18
Guest drivers
	Gabriela Jílková	0
	Hannah Grisham	0
	Charlie Martin	0

References

External links

• Official website Archived 14 April 2022 at the Wayback Machine