(Reuters) – The all-female W Series visits five new circuits in 2022 as a part of an eight-race calendar that may see it compete on the identical weekends as Formula One for the second successive 12 months.
The collection begins in Miami from May 6-8 as a assist occasion for the inaugural Formula One Miami Grand Prix across the Hard Rock Stadium.
It can even race for the primary time at Spain’s Circuit de Catalunya, French Grand Prix venue Paul Ricard at Le Castellet, and make its Asian debut at Japan’s Suzuka.
Mexico’s Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, one other new venue on the calendar, will host the season finale on Oct. 28-30.
Britain’s Silverstone, Hungarian Grand Prix host Hungaroring and the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, which featured on final 12 months’s schedule, will return in 2022.
The Texas race, nonetheless, stays topic to contract.
The collection placed on eight races at six circuits final 12 months, with Austin the one non-European venue.
“We have all the time said our intention to make the collection a really international motion and this calendar is the subsequent step in direction of reaching that,” mentioned W Series Chief Executive Catherine Bond Muir in a press release.
“Last 12 months, we started a landmark partnership with Formula One and our gifted grid of feminine racing drivers proved that they belong on motor racing’s biggest stage.”
The W Series, which makes use of similar vehicles homologated to FIA Formula Three specs, was launched in 2019 to assist ladies climb the motorsport ladder to Formula One, which has not had a feminine race driver since Italian Lella Lombardi in 1976.
Inaugural W Series champion Briton Jamie Chadwick efficiently defended her title final 12 months, with the collection not racing in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It has been unbelievable to witness the championship progress as we proceed to champion range throughout motor sport, and it’s thrilling to see the collection will go to five new venues subsequent 12 months, together with its debut in Asia,” mentioned Formula One’s motorsports managing director Ross Brawn.
(Reporting by Abhishek Takle; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
