Chadwick scores third title as 2022 W Series season cut short

W Series is a great avenue to highlight women in motorsport. But three years since its inception, the future of the all-female racing series is now in jeopardy.

Founder and chief executive Catherine Bond Muir has announced the last three W series races in the United States and Mexico this season will not take place due to financial reasons. In addition, the decision was "made to focus on the longer-term fundraising process to enable the longevity and financial health of W Series into 2023".

For those who may not know, the W Series is structured differently from other racing championships. The series takes care of the funding needed by the drivers to compete instead of the other way around. Of course, with this business model, it will raise doubts if the series will be a sustainable one, but Bond Muir is confident the funding will come and the series will continue next year.

Now that the 2022 season is cut short, this means Britain's Jamie Chadwick is the 2022 W Series champion – her third successive title. Chadwick scored five victories and held a 50-point lead from Beitske Visser going into the supposed last three rounds, with Alice Powell in third, just a further seven points behind Visser.

The W Series has already completed seven races. And since the FIA requires six races in order for the championship to be declared official, the series satisfies the conditions and deems Chadwick as the winner. Chadwick is due to receive the USD 500,000 prize money with a further USD 1 million spread across the drivers in the championship standings.

This also means Filipina racing driver Bianca Bustamante will finish her maiden W Series season 14th in the standings - tied with teammate Juju Noda who scored two points. Bustamante's haul came in her debut race at the Miami Grand Prix where she finished 9th.

Bustamante's seat is guaranteed for next season since she is contracted as a W Series Academy driver. However, with the W Series facing financial difficulties, we have yet to see if the series will still return in 2023.