W Series 2019: Five British drivers including Jamie Chadwick and Alice Powell named in 18-driver line-up

Esmee Hawkey, Jessica Hawkins and Sarah Moore make up the strong British contingent that will compete in the world’s first all-female single-seater series that begins in May

Sarah Moore, Esmee Hawkey, Alice Powell, Jessica Hawkins, and Jamie Chadwick will drive in the W Series this year (Twitter/@alicepowell)

Five British drivers have been named among the inaugural line-up for the W Series as 18 women were confirmed for the world’s first all-female single-seater racing series.

Jamie Chadwick, the first female driver in history to win a British Formula 3 round and the British GT Championship, was one of the 18 drivers to make it through the final four-day trial in Almeria and will compete in the first season of the W Series that gets underway at the start of May.

Chadwick will be joined on the grid by four other British drivers in GT product Esmee Hawkey, former Mini Challenge Pro Vice-champion Jessica Hawkins, ex-Ginetta Junior champion Sarah Moore and past GP3 driver Alice Powell.

The 18 successful drivers beat off competition from 10 others at the Circuit de Almeria, with former F1 driver David Coulthard unveiling who had made the cut on Wednesday afternoon.

“This has been a more difficult selection process than we ever could have dreamt of in terms of how close it has been across the field,” said Coulthard, who is the W Series Advisory Board Chairman. “The rate of learning has been really impressive to see, and that’s absolutely what we need to see in those who have relatively little experience in single-seaters, but have got natural speed.

“The emotion attached to it has got nothing whatever to do with whether they’re male or female. It’s just that, having had the pleasure of being a professional driver, I know how privileged that is, and I sincerely want all of them who have gone through this process to have professional racing careers at whatever level their talent will allow them to go to.

“This represents today one big step closer to them realising that dream, and I think everyone at W Series can be proud of their contribution to putting these racers on track, who just happen to be women.”

On top of the 18 successful drivers, the W Series announced four reserve drivers in Belgium’s Sarah Bovy, Hungarian Vivien Keszthelyi, Dutch driver Stephane Kox and Italian Francesca Linossi.

The series will get underway on 3/4 May at Hockenheim, which host the F1 German Grand Prix, which will kick-off a six-round championship that climaxes at Britain’s Brand Hatch in mid-August.

Speaking as part of the driver line-up announcement, W Series chief executive Catherine Bond Muir said: “After four intensive days’ testing in Almeria, finishing yesterday, and four equally rigorous days’ trials in Melk in January, as you can imagine we’d amassed a huge amount of data. So our judges, led by Dave Ryan, then crunched that data in order to determine who would be the 18 drivers to contest the first ever single-seater racing series for female drivers: W Series.

“To those drivers who didn’t make it through, I offer my commiserations, of course, but I also say ‘well done’. All our drivers worked diligently, studied hard, and drove well, including those who didn’t make it through.

David Coulthard announced the 18 successful drivers who will compete in the W Series (Getty)

“To the 18 drivers who did make it through, I say ‘big congrats and very well done’. But I also want to mention our four reserve drivers, who didn’t quite make the final 18 but all impressed our judges. They’ll be disappointed, inevitably, but they’re still part of the W Series family.

“So that’s it then. Our driver selection programme is complete. Let’s go racing!”

Full 2019 line-up:

Jamie Chadwick, UK

Sabre Cook, USA

Marta Garcia, Spain

Megan Gilkes, Canada

Esmee Hawkey, UK

Jessica Hawkins, UK

Shea Holbrook, USA

Emma Kimilainen, Finland

Miki Koyama, Japan

Sarah Moore, UK

Tasmin Pepper, South Africa

Vicky Piria, Italy

Alice Powell, UK

Gosia Rdest, Poland

Naomi Schiff, Belgium

Beitske Visser, Netherlands

Fabienne Wohlwend, Liechtenstein

Caitlin Wood, Australia

Reserve list:

Sarah Bovy, Belgium

Vivien Keszthelyi, Hungary

Stephane Kox, Netherlands

Francesca Linossi, Italy