W Series 2022 Drive Line-Up Revealed

W Series has announced its full driver line-up for the 2022 season

Entering its third full season, and its second alongside Formula 1, there are plenty of names to get excited about – both familiar and brand new.

Amongst returning favourites like defending Champion Jamie Chadwick and Vice Champion Alice Powell, there are five rookies being thrown into the mix.
The announcement comes after pre-season tests in both Arizona and Barcelona.

Image: W Series Media

“It will be interesting to see how they all handle the pressure of racing on motorsport’s greatest stage, and I’m looking forward to the first race of the season in Miami in May.” – W Series Racing Director, Dave Ryan

Who’s Returning?

First up, we have the top three drivers from the 2021 Season. Jamie Chadwick returns for a third season in W Series, this time driving for Jenner Racing. Alice Powell is next up, racing for Click2Drive Bristol Street Motors Racing. Having taken the Championship battle all the way to the final round last year, she’ll be hoping to clinch it this time and finally dethrone Chadwick.

Finally, there’s the Flying Finn, Emma Kimiläinen.

Last year, she won the race in Spa under torrential conditions and was in a league of her own as the best of the rest.

Next up are the three drivers hailing from Spain. Nerea Marti is set to make 2022 her second season in W Series after impressing everyone in her rookie year last year and clinching a podium in Budapest. Belen Garcia and Marta Garcia (not related) will also be back for more.

Image: W Series Media

Jessica Hawkins, Abbi Pulling and Sarah Moore will also be racing in W Series this year. Moore became the first LGBTQ person on a podium last year at the first round in Austria. Pulling made her W Series debut in Austin and achieved pole on debut, making her an incredibly exciting prospect for 2022.

The final three returning drivers are Bruna Tomaselli, Beitske Visser and Fabienne Wohlwend.

Bruna had a solid year last year so will be looking to build on that in 2022. After challenging for the title in 2019, Visser wasn’t quite up there in 2021 but will be looking to come back with a vengeance in 2022. With two podiums last year, Wohlwend will be determined to get her first win in 2022.

With her performance last year, it’s just a matter of when.

Who are the Rookies?

There are five rookie drivers for the 2022 Season in total. First, there’s Tereza Babickova. She’s 18 years old and comes from the Czech Republic.

Image: W Series Media

Next up on the grid are Bianca Bustamante and Chloe Chambers. Both are 17 years old with the former coming the Philippines and the later from the U.S.

Then comes our youngest driver for the 2022 season – Juju Noda. At just 16 years old and hailing from Japan, she’ll be looking to emulate her Japanese counterparts in this part of the motorsport world (Ayuma Iwasa and Yuki Tsunoda) in being incredibly quick from the offset.

Finally, there’s Emely De Heus. 19 and from the Netherlands, she raced in the Spanish Formula 4 Championship in 2021.

At the time of writing, a number of these drivers have also been assigned to some of the teams that will be on the 2022 W Series grid. First up, Nerea Marti and Belen Garcia will be driving for the Quantfury team – a crypto trading come racing team outfit.

Next up, as previously announced, Jamie Chadwick will be joining Caitlin Jenner’s new W Series Racing team – Jenner Racing. The defending Champion will be joined by American rookie Chloe Chambers.

Fabienne Wohlwend and Marta Garcia will be driving for the newly formed, community first team of Cortdao with their striking (better than F1 Alpine) pink livery.

Emma Kimiliaien and rookie Tereza Babickova will be racing for the Puma Motorsport Team.

Finally, Alice Powell and Jessica Hawkins will be teaming up to front an all British outfit in the form of Bristol Motors.

Keep your eyes peeled over the coming days for more team and driver pairings.

Anything Else?

But there’s one more twist to the tale. W Series has an eighteenth spot open on the grid which will be filled by the pool of reserve drivers. This will give each of them ample opportunity to prove themselves and hopefully find a way onto the grid permanently for the 2023 season.