W Series have announced a landmark deal with Sky Sports that will see every qualifying session and race broadcast live for the next three years. The agreement represents W Series' largest media investment to date, the championship has confirmed, and will involve distribution of content across Sky's channels, including linear, digital and social. As well as on Sky Sports in the UK, the series will be shown live for the first time on Sky Italia, while coverage on Sky Deutschland will continue. It comes ahead of a season that will see W Series race 10 times across eight F1 events – in Miami, Barcelona, Great Britain, France, Hungary, Suzuka, Austin and Mexico City. The deal will take W Series through to the end of its fifth season (2024) with live coverage of the race in Great Britain, and highlights from the other nine events, set to be shown on free-to-air television in the UK, on Channel 4.
What is W Series?
W Series is a free-to-enter single-seater motorsport category for women, aimed at eliminating the financial barriers that have historically prevented them from progressing to an elite motorsport level. Like a number of motorsport categories that exist outside of F1, it is a spec series that ensures all drivers are given equal equipment to battle with on track. So far, W Series boast only one champion, with Williams academy driver Jamie Chadwick having won out in both 2019 and 2021, either side of the cancelled 2020 season. She will return for a third season in 2022 to defend her crown, racing for Jenner Racing.
New deal looks to widen W Series' reach
Celebrating the announcement, W Series CEO Catherine Bond Muir said: "W Series is an increasingly international series – more than half of the races during the 2022 season will take place outside Europe, including our first-ever race in Asia in support of the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. "Our broadcast partnership with Sky Sports reflects this, giving us great breadth of coverage across Sky's global platforms and we're excited to showcase incredibly exciting racing through fantastic content, direct to our fans." Sky Sports' Managing Director, Jonathan Licht, added: "At Sky Sports, we are committed to making sport more inclusive and I can now proudly say that, with the addition of W Series, every genre channel at Sky Sports now has both men's and women's sports coverage. "We look forward to sharing the excitement of this upcoming season with our viewers."
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