Inside the fight for the 18 W Series seats

There is a certain amount of trial and error involved at the start of any new project when it comes to deciding what works and what doesn't, but the new W Series championship faced a particularly unenviable task when selecting its 18 drivers for the inaugural season - which begins at Hockenheim as part of the DTM support bill in May.

W Series - with its mission statement of addressing the gender imbalance of motorsport by creating the first all-female racing championship - has already had much criticism levelled at it over the risks of segregation, with suggestions from some that such segregation would only work to prove women as inferior motorsport competitors to men.

So the drivers selected by W Series needed to be proven motorsport talents in their own right, irrespective of their gender, in order to quell some of those criticisms and ensure the championship's success.

At the same time, another challenge unique to W Series is its aim to quite literally "rethink racing", as per its motto, by establishing a new championship model in which all expenses are paid - and indeed, no expense is spared - with fully-funded race seats for each driver and a prize fund totalling $1.5million available.

Eighteen full-time drivers - including 2019 MRF champion and BRDC British Formula 3 star Jamie Chadwick and former GP3 racers Beitske Visser and Alice Powell - were revealed following an intense assessment and selection process which began with a long list of almost 60 drivers last autumn, and began in earnest with a four-day assessment programme at Melk in Austria in January where that initial long list was reduced to just 28. They went through to a follow-up at Almeria in Spain in the actual W Series car, after which 18 would make the cut.

The Melk selection was held in cold and snowy conditions and consisted of a test in road cars, including Porsche Cayman S and Ford Fiesta STs - a new and unfamiliar area to many of the hopeful candidates, with the long list encompassing a wide range of ages and motorsport experiences.

The assessment paid particular attention to physical performance, as well as devoting time to media training and awareness. In total, each driver was assessed on the basis of 10 different disciplines, which were the same as those used by the FIA Young Driver Institute of Excellence from 2011-15 and provided by Alexander Wurz's company Test and Training International.

"We looked at progress, we looked at attitude - are they really hungry for it or are they just there for the ride because it's free? - we looked at everything and we came away from there with 22 drivers" Dave Ryan

Overseeing the selection process was W Series Racing Director and ex-McLaren sporting director Dave Ryan, as well as the W Series judging panel that included Formula 1 grand prix winner David Coulthard and former IndyCar driver Lyn St James.

For Ryan, it was important that W Series used criteria set by an outside, established party to inform its initial selection phase driver choices in order to reach a decision neutrally. "It was all pretty binary: we wanted the top 28 drivers, so we took the top 28 and that was it," explains Ryan.

"We also wanted it to be completely neutral and we didn't want people saying, 'Oh you've chosen them because you have an interest in their career'.

"So really what we did was give the programme to them [Test and Training International] and allow them to do everything. Obviously we were involved and we were there and looking at it, but actually, I'm pretty comfortable that we got the list of names and job done."

For the duration of the test at Melk, the results and times of each competitor were kept a secret. Alongside the challenging weather conditions and the slightly more unusual driving assessments, that made the first stage of the selection process more pressured than what would follow in the more traditional test at Almeria.

"I found Melk not necessarily more intense, but more stressful than Almeria just because it was out of my comfort zone," says Powell, who as the first woman to score points in the GP3 series in 2012 has a single-seater background.

"There was a lot going on during the days and lots of us and lots of activities going on. It was intense but motorsport is intense and they had no choice but to push us to the limit so they could find the right drivers."

The Almeria selection process took place in March and marked the first time each of the hopeful candidates drove the Hitech GP-operated Formula 3-spec Tatuus-318 car, with the runs each driver made in this machinery informing the final decision.

On the penultimate day of the selection process, 12 drivers were told they were through to the next stage automatically based on their performance - leaving the remaining drivers to fight it out for the remaining slots on the grid.

"There will always be people who feel they have been misjudged and who are going to be disappointed. We're all human and it could be that I got it wrong. You can't get everything perfect" Dave Ryan

"We looked at everything, so of course, we looked at how quick they were but we also looked at their progress over the course of the whole weekend," says Ryan.

"We looked at progress, we looked at attitude - are they really hungry for it or are they just there for the ride because it's free? - we looked at everything and we came away from there with 22 drivers."

For all of the drivers, including those extra three reserve drivers (two of whom, Stephane Kox and Francesca Linossi, later elected to withdraw from the process as a result of other racing commitments in 2019), the assessment and evaluation process is far from over and will be ongoing throughout the season.

At the final pre-season test at the Lausitzring this week, the three reserve drivers at that stage - Sarah Bovy, Vivien Keszthelyi and Kox - were all being evaluated for the chance to drive in free practice outings throughout the season, as well as being kept in the picture should anything on the main grid need to change.

"Trying to keep 18 drivers going for six races, more than likely someone will have a problem, someone is going to get ill, so that's when the reserves come in," explains Ryan.

"But equally, if one of the 18 make a mistake and they're not up to this once we've given them every opportunity to get there and they just don't make it, then we can slide a reserve in and they'll drop back to the reserve place.

"I'm very prepared to change it around a little bit. I do want to totally support the drivers that we have chosen to be the race drivers and give them every opportunity to deliver - but if they don't deliver, then we shouldn't be afraid to give that chance to someone else who is better."

And that willingness to change things around and see what fits best as the series embarks upon its inaugural, and - whichever way you look at it - historic season informs Ryan's response to any potential criticism of the way the selection process worked, with some unsuccessful drivers venting frustration on social media.

"If you have to reduce from that [number] to that, then there will always be people who feel they have been misjudged and who are going to be disappointed. We're all human and it could be that I got it wrong. You can't get everything perfect, and I'm not going to pretend we are.

"Like anything in life, sometimes you stand back and say, 'You know what, I made a mistake there and I should have chosen them or them'.

"I really hope that some of those who we rejected go out there and prove us wrong, and that'd be fantastic because it gives me the opportunity to say 'you know what, I got it wrong - do you want to come back and have another go?'

"That would be my attitude and I wouldn't hide from the fact. But we have to start somewhere and we chose the best way of going about that I think and I don't know if there was another way of doing things."

At its very heart, W Series is all about finding another way of doing things. Maybe the selection process will change in years to come as the series adapts and finds its feet in the wider motorsport landscape, but regardless there is no escaping that the name of every driver who lines up to take their place on the grid at the first ever all-female race will etch their names into a small part of history.