Historically, motor racing has been a male-dominated sport for many decades. It has been 46 years since a woman was entered in a Formula One race, and the demand for women competing in motorsport is ever growing. Motorsport has always been an elitist sport, sometimes favoring wealth over talent. Fortunately, for women aspiring a motorsport career, there is the W Series. On YouTube, W series uploaded a video called “W Series Explained: Our Mission.” The title is important because it leads the viewer to know that the video is intended to showcase the goals of W Series. The intended audience is presumably fans of motorsport, especially Formula One, and the purpose is to show that W Series gives women the opportunity to compete with men in higher level motor racing.
In the video “W Series Explained: Our Mission.”, it explains that W Series is a feeder series – a motorsport championship designed for drivers to graduate into bigger racing series, such as Formula Two and Formula One. However, unlike other feeder series like Formula 3, it is exclusively for women and has no entry fee for participation. The series is designed to favor most talented drivers rather than those with the most financial backing. Motorsport is reliant on money, making it extremely difficult for anyone lower and middle class to compete. Being accessible, W Series promotes diversity by allowing more people from different backgrounds to join the sport.
The video starts off displaying how it has been 50 years a female started a Formula One race, This statistic is emphasized by having to number of years gradually counting up to 50, showing that there has been a delay in female participation in motorsport.
After showing this statistic it displays different pictures of the participants from W Series while saying “we believe that W Series can be an important cultural catalyst for female empowerment.” This section of the video functions to advertise why its mission is important not just for motorsport, but for women in sports as a whole.
After that, a graphic of the word “breaking down” is shattered into pieces, showing that W Series aims to be unrestrictive for female participants to enter. The video says that W Series is a free-to-enter championship to give every entrant an equal chance.
This is followed with an image of the reigning W Series champion, Jamie Chadwick, spraying champagne, followed by a dollar sign above a W-Series car, representing how the series is won by the driver with the most talent, and not those with the most financial backing.
Another key point illustrated by the video is when it first shows an image of a podium ceremony from W Series, shortly followed by one from Formula One. Displaying these images, the video emphasizes how its goal is to have “female and male racing drivers compete on equal terms.” It is clear that one of the goals of W Series is to bring women in the top levels of motorsport along with men.
The final main point shown by this video is when it shows pictures of young girls driving go karts, saying “we want to inspire young girls at grassroots levels by highlighting today’s generation of talented female racing drivers.” With these images, the video is making it clear how there is a future generation of female racing drivers waiting for their big break in motorsport.
The video ends with the message “some say it’s a long road, but we’re in a hurry to get there” as a W Series-spec car drives off into the distance. This concluding message shows that W Series aims to achieve its goals as soon as possible, to ensure that Women have a place in motorsport.
This video overall has effectiveness telling its mission through its graphics and narration. The graphics displayed in the video match with messages being said by displaying easy-to-understand icons and images along with the commentary. To casual racing fans, this video does a great job delivering its message to argue that women can compete in motorsport. However, to more invested racing fans, including myself, W Series’ limitations for its goals can be easily recognized when examining other racing series that the sport intends to influence. W Series succeeds by allowing women from different backgrounds to compete in the series. However, W Series fails to solve the problem most women face when trying to compete outside of W Series. This is crucial since the ultimate argument of this video is that women have the chance to compete with men at top-level racing. While W Series itself may be inclusive, other racing series, particularly the ones it feeds into, are not. The main issue is that motorsport is very reliant on money, and in some cases, favors funding over talent. To enter in Formula 3, you need around €500,000. Even if you had financial backing from driver academies, it is very rare that they would completely cover the cost. In W Series, you are awarded €500,000 in prize money if you win the championship, which should just cover the cost to enter in Formula 3. For example, Jamie Chadwick had to return to W Series for a third season because she cannot secure funding for a seat in Formula Two or even Formula Three.
W Series aims to solve a problem that motor racing has faced for decades. It attempts to allow women from different backgrounds to be given the opportunity to enter in the highest level in motorsport. While W Series is taking a step in the right direction, it fails to achieve its goals due to external factors. Motorsport categories outside of W Series are still very much elitist, favoring mostly to male drivers with a decent amount of financial backing. If the ideas that W Series implements do not carry over to other motorsports, then inclusion of women in motorsport may still be hard to achieve.