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 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.
“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.
And 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.
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.
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.
Anything Else?
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.
The roster of 2022 reserve drivers will be announced in due course.
While some of the drivers have been signed by teams, not all of them have.
According to W Series, these announcements will be made soon so keep your eyes peeled for them.
The 2022 W Series season will kick off in May in Miami.
