Female driver Silvestro says W series is "not the best approach"

2019 will mark the inaugural season for the W series. It's a racing formula for women only in the hope it'll give them a platform to step up to Formula 1. It sounds like a good idea on paper, but a current female racer doesn't think it'll be the best approach.

"I do not think it is the best approach to make progress," Simona de Silvestro tells Motorsport.

"I think you better stop all that money from those series and put into something like a Red Bull junior program since that proves it works. Racers who are included in such a program grow into winners and end up at the top teams in Formula One. Why do you not expand that? Because the main thing, when I look at my own career, is that female racers never get a chance from a top team. That seems to me the missing puzzle piece here."

Silvestro, 30, has featured in IndyCar five times, and also raced in Formula E. She now participates in the Supercars championship for the Nissan Team.