W Series CEO Catherine Bond Muir has said that the championship is "robust enough" to continue racing, despite the impact of the coronavrius pandemic.
The 2020 season has been put on hold as a result, with the series yet to announce any plans for when racing will resume.
Partnered with DTM and Formula 1 W Series had planned for an eight-race calendar this season, but Bond Muir has insisted the championship will return once it is safe to do so.
“It is absolutely robust enough,” Bond Muir told a conference call on Monday when asked whether the series could survive the current climate.
“There’s a very clear message here. We will be racing next year irrespective of what happens this year.
"We have to have races that make sense. We can’t race in Europe and then race in the United States two weeks later. We need to ship things by sea, we don’t have the money or finances to go and rent a 747 unfortunately.”
The series got off to a strong start in 2019 which saw Jamie Chadwick crowned its inaugral champion at Brands Hatch, and looked to be building on that momentum by agreeing to be on the F1 undercard for the Mexican and US Grand Prix.
However, this has been thrown into doubt with the F1 calendar also effected, while DTM has been hit by the announcement that one of just two constructors Audi will leave the series at the end of the year.
“We would be delighted to continue our relationship with Formula One, and I don’t think that has an impact on whatever happens with DTM,” she said.
“At the moment I think Formula One are working flat out at trying to make 2020 work and we certainly haven’t had those conversations yet.”
In the absence of real life racing, W Series has announced a 10-race eSports League which Bond Muir confirmed was set to kick off over the next couple of weeks.
The league will see all 18 drivers on the current grid compete across tracks including Interlagos, Monza and Spa.
Bond Muir said: “I understand why people say esports should never segregate but the W Series Esport League is about women. I’m not going to be apologetic about not opening it up to men. It’s about promoting women in motor sport. We are W Series. We are a women-only racing series. We want to stick to our DNA and promote it to women.”
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