W Series picks Noda and five from F4 camp to join Barcelona test

Photo: W Series

W Series has revealed the entry list for its second pre-season test, which will take place at Barcelona on March 2-4.

It will be the first to use the cars actually raced in the championship, as at the start of this month the series organised a five-day test at Inde Motorsports Ranch in the United States for drivers who had not raced in W Series before.

Crawford’s Formula 4 chassis was used, and Kiwi Motorsport ran all of the cars. From that test, Tereza Babickova, Lena Buhler, Bianca Bustamante, Chloe Chambers and Emely De Heus have been invited to drive Tatuus T-318 cars at Barcelona.

There they will be joined by the top 12 from W Series last year, who have all been invited to return to the championship. Reigning champion Jamie Chadwick is the only one of those to be publicly confirmed to be racing in 2022 though.

Also driving at the test will be Danish Formula 4 graduate Juju Noda, who did a private testing programme with her ex-Formula 1 driver father Hideki Noda’s eponymous team in the same Formula Regional car that W Series uses before the car was put on the market for sale following a crash, and W Series race-winner Megan Gilkes.

BRSCC National Formula Ford 1600 racer Gilkes raced in W Series in 2019, and won the non-championship reversed grid race at Assen. She has also tested in FRegional machinery since.

British team Fine Moments ran all of the cars in W Series’ 2021 season, and it has been confirmed that the centrally-run format will remain for this year despite reports that it had become a team-based competition. The operating company for the upcoming season, whether it be Fine Moments or not, has not been named by W Series.

Test entry list