Visser expects more of a strong W Series season: ‘America’s stamina will be good’

F1 max Beitske visited Visser during the race weekend in Hungary. The 27-year-old Dutchman had a good race at the weekend in Budapest. He was fastest in free practice and second in qualifying. The driver finished the race in third place. Visser spoke about his season so far, his future in motorsport and the W Series as a whole.

Visser has also had a strong season in the W series this year. In France she managed to take pole position and after another solid race weekend in Hungary she shared second place with rival Alice Powell. Leader Jamie Chadwick is 75 points behind. Visser is moderately satisfied with his year. ‘It’s a bit of a double, of course it’s always better. But looking at last year’s drama, things are definitely looking up.

“I always feel good in the car, but pole will definitely be good. So hopefully we can continue in that vein towards the races.’ Asked where she wants the car to be at the end of the season, she replies: ‘Yes, I hope so, we’ll do our best. We can’t solve everything equally. We had problems with the tires anyway, we couldn’t get them right in the window. And it’s not right in terms of weight either.’

“There are more fat racing classes than Formula 1”

The Dutchman has driven in the ADAC Formal Masters, Formula Renault 3.5 series in the past, was part of the Red Bull Racing Academy for a year and enrolled in BMW’s training program. He has been competing in the W Series since 2019. Visser describes his plans for the future: ‘I don’t think you can plan anything in motorsport. You have to act and then you see what opportunities come your way.’

“I want to race as much as possible, as long as I can go fast. From the beginning I had no budget, I could only ride where I had the opportunity. Fortunately, I had a lot of opportunities with teams that believed in me. My goal is no longer to race in Formula 3 or something. I love endurance racing, I think America is cool, but I also love Formula E. Those are more realistic goals for me (than Formula 1, ed. to reach). I focus more on that. Everyone is blindly focused on Formula 1, but more than that class. There are many great racing classes.’

“A seat in Formula 2 already costs more than two million”

Last season, Visser could be admired in the WEC in addition to the W Series, but that’s not on his resume this year. “Right now I only have the W series. I am focusing on this now. There shouldn’t be too many conflicts between different championships, I want to ride more than one championship. Let’s see what the options are next year.’

However, an adventure next to the W series might make sense. Women are gaining a bigger and bigger position in motorsport, so it could be argued that sponsoring Visser would be profitable for commercial parties. Visser thinks he knows why big money has been so hard to get off the ground so far: ‘It’s definitely not about sponsoring a few thousand euros. A seat in Formula 2 already costs more than two million. And you also see drivers in Formula 1 making millions. Then you are of course talking about completely different amounts.’

Finally, Visser was very pleased with the W series. The driver is happy with the platform and support she gets to continue her racing career. However, there is always room for improvement. For example, teams work with different engineers at each race. According to Visser, this has its advantages and disadvantages. ‘It’s a difference. On the one hand, you can build a good relationship with an engineer throughout the year and get better results. On the other hand, with a changing engineer you become more and more independent because you have to do more yourself. After all, I always have to convince an engineer of my preferred way of working in the shortest possible time. You can also learn a lot about your own driving style and what you like about the car’s setup. So there is something for both sides.’

By: Bart Slapbeckhorn, thanks to Moritz Kappetijn