FIM announces new Women’s World Championship for 2024

In a special press conference on Saturday at the MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix, Dorna Sports and the FIM unveiled this new championship.

The FIM Women’s World Championship will take place over six rounds in 2024 in Europe and will be part of the World Superbike support bill.

The series will be a single-make championship, though no manufacturer has been lined up. It is hoped the level of bike will be close to Supersport level.

Unlike the FIM Women’s European Championship, which races at Supersport 300 level, the Women’s World Championship is being billed as a “final destination” for female racers rather than a talent cup to help progress young riders up the ladder.

FIM President Jorge Viegas said: “Since it’s the first time ever we are going to start since 1904, we are going to start next year with the FIM’s Women’s World Championship.

“We gave a lot of thought, we had a lot of demand. As we do already in motocross, enduro and trials, we are starting a women’s world championship next year in circuit racing.

“Our aim is to have six rounds in Europe. We are planning to do a single-brand competition and we will try to have women from all over the world racing in this new championship. This competition will be organised in the frame of the World Superbike Championship.

“It’s a championship where we want the women to be pro, like in MotoGP. Not promotional, not a step to another thing. It’s final. We want the women who race here, they will live in that, they will be professionals. We will start in maybe March, April 2024.”

Jorge Viegas

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

FIM-sanctioned motorcycle racing has already celebrated a female world champion, with Ana Carrasco making history when she won the 2018 World Supersport 300 Championship.

This makes the FIM’s decision to form a new all-female championship as a professional series rather than a steppingstone to help improve gender diversity in existing series such as MotoGP and WSBK odd.

Explaining this decision, Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta said: “We personally think the best way to start racing is when everybody has the same conditions.

“That means right now we are trying to reach the best women riders in the world and we understand that if it’s a start to have competition between brands, between teams, between people who have money, it’s not looking at who are the best women rider in the world.

“That’s the reason why we took the decision to have the same bikes for everybody, because it will show to us what the best things are. We will have a compromise for some races, and later on we will see what are the best possibilities to continue.”

Dorna WSBK chief Gregorio Lavilla suggests the Women’s World Championship could help to improve the talent pool of racers, stating: “It’s clear that there is a percentage, and it’s percentages we need to increase.

“And in order to have more women to succeed, maybe there has not been the possibility to succeed because there are certain requirements, the quality itself, especially when you start any sport, is not enough.

“So, the goal here is to take this matter out of the equation, increase the percentage of riders we’ve got and from that we will see where we end up.”