Lewis Hamilton believes F1 and the FIA should have done more to help W Series, the all-women race series that has collapsed with liabilities of over £7m.

The series should have formed part of the support to this weekend's United States Grand Prix, but the plug was pulled late last month when the penultimate round, in Singapore, was cancelled.

In its three years the series has only ever had one champion, Jamie Chadwick, who, realistically speaking, is no nearer to an F1 drive than she was before. Indeed, from the outset, the concept was criticised by a number of women racers who claimed it segregated them from men at a time they wanted to be racing against them.

Asked at the Circuit of the Americas if he feels the sport should be doing more to assist support series, Hamilton singled out W Series.

"100 per cent I do," he said. "Particularly that. The W Series.

"There has not been enough focus on women in sport, the whole of Formula 1's life," he continued, "and there's not enough emphasis on it now. They're not magnifying enough the great work that is being done there.

"There is not enough representation across the board, within the industry," he added. "And there's not really a pathway for those young, amazing drivers to even get to Formula 1, and then you have some people who say we're never going to see a female F1 driver ever.

"That's not a good narrative to be putting out," he insisted. "I think we need to be doing more, and with the organisation, with Formula 1 and Liberty doing so well it's not a lot for them to be able to help out in that space.

"I think we need to be doing more to encourage... I mean, in the work I'm trying to do with Mercedes for example, we're trying to get like 8000 young girls into the sport - but every team should be doing that."

While the W Series might be missing this weekend, one area where women do appear to be making strides in the sport is the press room, where no less than five female journos were questioning Lewis, Carlos and Sergio at yesterday's press conference.

This at a time Liberty Media is claiming a 36 million fan-base in the USA and 40% of the sport's followers being women.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by elsiebc, 23/10/2022 19:58

"When you take the talking points, accept them as fact, and then sarcastically present the logical conclusions and you are dinged for it, you know you are onto something. Unfortunately it only takes one butt-hurt person to deny others a logical argument.
BTW - My tongue was so firmly planted in my cheek when I wrote the initial comment that I had to use sign language to communicate for the next three days! "

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2. Posted by Defiant, 21/10/2022 16:50

"How about adding another rule... we all know how the FIA love to do that.

All teams MUST have at least 1 female test/stand in driver on staff. If they have to add 1 more driver to the team to accomplish this then I'm sure the "flexible" budget cap could be adjusted to accommodate.

Then everyone would be able to see a regular comparison and more importantly, more seat time for experience, then if the women can compare consistently (I suspect that they can with more seat time) then the proof will be out there for all to see."

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3. Posted by elsiebc, 21/10/2022 16:14 (moderated by an Adminstrator, 21/10/2022 16:34)

"This comment was removed by an administrator as it was judged to have broken the site's posting rules and etiquette."

Rating: Neutral (0)

4. Posted by Mad Matt, 21/10/2022 15:10

"I think any of the F1 teams would bite your hand off to get a female driver who could compete, the publicity it would bring would be like gold dust for them.

The problem seems to be that there are none who can compete and the teams aren't willing to have someone run around way off the pace.

"

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5. Posted by Motorsport-fan, 21/10/2022 12:26

"If all parties where genuinely using this as a platform to get a female driver into F1, Jamie would have a seat now."

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6. Posted by Spindoctor, 21/10/2022 11:56 (moderated by an Adminstrator, 21/10/2022 16:34)

"I'll say it to save certain parties the effort of typing it themselves: "Hamilton is very wealthy - if he cares that much, why hasn't he saved the series?" If you ask that question, you wouldn't understand the answer......

"

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7. Posted by Wokingchap, 21/10/2022 11:45

"I, for one, enjoyed the W Series and believe its essential, so once again agree with Lewis.... it should be saved."

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F1 should help W Series says Hamilton

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