How football has posed difficult questions for F1

The collapse of the W Series and the success of the recent FIFA Women’s World Cup don’t look good for Formula 1 and its desire to have women racing at the very highest level says MARK GALLAGHER

The list of creditors owed money following the collapse of W Series makes for depressing reading. I know several of them and suspect some can ill afford to write off such losses.

While founder Catherine Bond Muir and her team fought the good fight to establish W Series as the principal route for women racers to pursue their careers, there is no avoiding the fact that the series failed commercially. This happened despite W Series being invited to support selected F1 events. The championship also achieved good traction with media and plenty of support among the new audiences of young, female fans which are a notable feature of F1’s recent growth.