W Series aims for U.S. expansion once on a stable footing

The W Series sees the United States as its priority destination to expand its business once it is able to secure the championship’s long-term future.

The all-female open-wheel series has had to curtail its 2022 season with two rounds remaining due to a lack of funding, after contracted investment failed to materialize. After calling off the U.S. and Mexican rounds to end the year, CEO Catherine Bond Muir says holding races in America remains an important target as she works to finalize longer-term funding to allow the series to continue in 2023.

“It’s got to be, for growing the business -- it is still I think the number one destination for us,” Bond Muir said of the U.S. “We’ve got to have a long, hard look at budgets next year, and whether next year is a holding year or not is yet to be decided. And I think obviously, those decisions need to be taken in conjunction with any new person coming into the business with money.

“We are racing next year. I’m just saying the number of U.S. races. We were wanting a number of U.S. races next year, and how many we get, I don’t yet know. Definitely racing next year, and hopefully in the U.S.”

Bond Muir admits that the struggles of the British economy in recent months along with wider cost increases have meant that the end to this season -- with the race in Singapore completed but Austin and Mexico City Formula 1 supporting races called off -- was more financially prohibitive than expected.

“What was extraordinary about the budgeting for the U.S. and Singapore is how much more expensive it looked now than it did when we budgeted this nine months, a year ago," she said. "That unquestionably has a wider impact, but we could have made it there had our plans gone according to plan.

“What’s happening in the wider world has some impact, but doesn’t seem to have deterred the interest of the investors and people wanting to put money into W Series.”