W Series is back this weekend

After losing the entirety of last season to the Covid-19 pandemic, W Series returns this weekend for its long-awaited, second campaign. Only this time it’s gone up a gear thanks to joint billing with F1 across eight rounds in 2021.

The new season kicks off with back-to-back races at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, followed by visits to Silverstone, the Hungaroring, Spa, Zandvoort and the Circuit of the Americas. The season finale will be held at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix late in October.

Practice and qualifying will take place on Fridays throughout the year, with races reserved for Saturdays.

And the fresh start means fresh liveries, made possible by the arrival of several sponsors to support a brand new teams’ championship. That means the old (and slightly confusing) system where drivers would swap cars and adopt a different colour scheme every week is no more. You can judge the new look for yourself by scrolling through the gallery above.

The grid will be divided up into nine teams each with two drivers, and the format could hang around if it proves to be successful. There’s no F1-style development battle behind the scenes though: all 18 Formula 3-spec cars will be kept identical.

“This is brilliant news for drivers,” said inaugural W Series champion Jamie Chadwick, who is partnered with Bruna Tomaselli at Veloce Racing for 2021. “We learned so much about the cars and the tracks in 2019, but a teams set-up will take us to the next level – giving us great insight into what it’s like working closely with a team partner and racing with a team championship in mind rather than just for yourself.”

2019 race winners Beitske Visser, Alice Powell, Marta Garcia and Emma Kimilainen all return this year, and half a dozen new drivers are set to make their series debut in Austria. Naomi Schiff and Caitlin Wood - whose progress TG followed at the epic Dubai 24 Hour in 2017 - are among the five back-up drivers W Series is keeping in reserve this season in case the pandemic causes more travel chaos.