Written by William Stephens, Edited by Sasha Macmillen
While both series are fundamentally different, they both push for diversity and inclusivity within motorsport in very different ways, with both doing something better than the other, and both having room for improvement.
W Series has been criticised since its inception. After two seasons with the same champion in Jamie Chadwick still not able to move beyond W Series despite so much success in the series. Without showing signs of allowing competitors to move up through the ranks of motorsport towards Formula 1, its fundamental aims are not succeeding.
Another problem with the current state of W Series is how uncompetitive it has been. Chadwick has been able to win twice with little threat from others in the series. This series can become worth something once the driving quality reaches the likes of Formula 3 or 4.
Extreme E however has provided a platform for drivers to thrive on an international stage, giving them abilities to race in other world championships in the off-road realm of motorsport. The series also has a stacked lineup among its top-class teams with people such as Carlos Sainz Sr and Sebastian Loeb being able to convincingly race wheel to wheel in the same cars on the same track.
Extreme E does have issues though, with its small calendar of 5 races per year making it very risky to have mistakes that reduce the already small amount of track time the drivers receive over the race weekend. But having such a short calendar will allow people to compete in other series at a high level.
Extreme E has a system that no other series has, it has ‘championship drivers’ that go to every race weekend and take over if a driver can't compete in the rest of the weekend. This has been demonstrated in the season opener with Tamara Molinaro filling in for the Xite energy team, she did incredibly well for the whole event.