MOTORSPORT: Aussie driver makes all-women series grid

Caitlin Wood from Maitland, in the Hunter Valley west of Newcastle (NSW), will represent Australia in the first W Series – the all-female, open-wheeler championship starting in Europe in five weeks.

Wood, 22, is among the 18 women of 13 nationalities chosen to race Formula 3 cars with costs covered and total prizemoney of US$1.5m (A$2.12m), including US$500,000 to the winner.

“I DID IT! W Series Class of 2019!!! I'm so happy to be a part of this inaugural year,” Wood posted on Facebook after the announcement last night that she had made the field.

She is top right in the photo, from which one of the 18 chosen is absent.

Almost 60 women racers trialled in road cars at Austria’s icy Wachauring track in January, with 28 advancing to the final four days of testing at Almeria in Spain in the past week, when they drove the Tatuus T-318 F3 cars that will be used in the series.

“It's been such a great time here in Spain pushing me to my limits,” Wood said.

“A full racing season covered is what everyone dreams of and it's finally a reality. Bring it on, I'm so ready.”

The top 12 drivers were selected after three days of the final test, with a shootout among the remaining 16 for the last six spots.

It’s not known whether Wood, who has been racing GTs in Europe and at the Bathurst 12-Hour the past couple of years (and has 24 Hours of Le Mans ambitions), was among the first dozen or the second half-dozen selected.

Four reserves have been chosen, while New Zealand-based Australian ute racer Alexandra Whitley missed the cut in Spain. Two other Aussies, Chelsea Angelo and Charlotte Poynting, were eliminated in Austria.

The 28 women in Spain did 3000 laps of the 4.2km Almeria circuit over the four days.

W Series racing director Dave Ryan, a former sporting director of the McLaren Formula 1 team, said the final selection process “has been tough on a few of the women, but the ones that have gone through have done a really good job”.

David Coulthard, the ex-F1 driver who is the chairman of the series’ advisory board and was one of the judges at the tests, said: “This has been a more difficult selection process than we ever could have dreamt. The rate of learning has been really impressive, and that’s absolutely what we need to see in those who have relatively little experience in single-seaters but have got natural speed.”

Those chosen will now test at Germany’s Lausitzring on April 14-16 before the first round of the W Series at Hockenheim on May 3-5, supporting the DTM touring car series.

Other races will be at Belgium’s Zolder, Italy’s Misano, Germany’s Norisring, Holland’s Assen and Britain’s Brands Hatch.

Daniel Ricciardo will have a new chassis for this weekend’s second round of the Formula 1 World Championship in Bahrain, as Renault takes no risk of any damage from his short-lived Australian Grand Prix two weeks ago.

The RS19s the carsales.com.au global ambassador and his German teammate Nico Hulkenberg will race at the Sakir circuit will have updates at the rear, including reshaped wings that will sacrifice a little downforce but cut drag on the long straights.

Ferrari has made “corrections” to its SF90s that were surprisingly so uncompetitive with Mercedes in Melbourne. Not only did the Ferraris lack grip, there have been suggestions they had cooling issues.

Michael Schumacher’s 20-year-old son, Mick, will do his first F1 test in Bahrain after the GP. He is scheduled to drive a Ferrari on Tuesday and a Ferrari-powered Alfa Romeo Sauber on Wednesday.

He makes his Formula 2 race debut in Bahrain this weekend with the same Prema team with which he won last year’s European F3 Championship.

Warburton connects with TCR series
Former Supercars chief executive James Warburton has joined the board of Australian Racing Group, the organiser of the new 2.0-litre touring car series TCR Australia.

Warburton, who has set up a consultancy business after a short stint at an outdoor advertising company until it was sold to an international buyer, said that getting involved with ARG “brings together my passion for motorsport, media, events and business”.

The TCR Australia series, kicking off at Sydney Motorsport Park in mid-May, will have six makes represented – Alfa Romeo, Audi, Honda, Hyundai, Renault and Volkswagen.

ARG, headed by former Supercars and earlier Volvo executive Matt Braid, also will run the new S5000 V8 open-wheeler series.

While there are 44 entries for the Bathurst 6 Hour, there are even more for most of the support events at the Easter meeting.

The five support categories boast 241 entries.

Hyundai Excels, production sports cars, improved production and the Porsche regularity trials each have more than 50, while there are 26 classic touring cars from the 1970s and ’80s.

Defending champions, Grant and Iain Sherrin, head the list for the 6 Hour in their BMW M4.

There are another 10 BMWs across five of the seven classes, plenty of Mitsubishis, Subarus, Holdens and a Ford FPV GT-F Falcon, two new Hyundai i30Ns and several Toyota 86s.

The HiTec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour starts at 11.30am eastern Australian time on Sunday, April 21.