Jamie Chadwick F1: Female racer has expressed confidence in becoming the first female F1 Grand Prix driver in the 21st century.
Jamie Chadwick is Formula One’s first female hope in 43 years. No woman has raced in a Formula One GP since the 1970s. The British driver won the female-only W Series last year.
Apart from this, at the age of 17, she was the first woman and youngest driver to win the British GT Championship. In 2018, she became the first woman and youngest racer to win a British Formula Three race.
The 22-year-old will now compete in the regional Formula 3 starting this August, with the aim of rising up to the International F3 and F2 grids. The Williams F1 development driver has joined the F3 Prema Powerteam for this purpose.
Chadwick has called this a dream opportunity and is hopeful of this propelling her into an F1 driver’s seat “by 2023 or 2024”, helping her to become the first female driver to compete in a Formula 1 race since Lella Lombardi in 1976.
“The scary thing with motorsport is the financial backing required. It’s an insane amount, but it’s so exciting to have been given an opportunity to do it with Prema.
“To drive in Formula 3, for example, you’re looking at double what I got in W Series prize money,” she added. She was awarded £500,000 for claiming the W Series title.
“It’s the most exciting moment of my career and gives me security and structure. Every year I’ve gone racing I’ve always had that uncertainty [of what I could do the following year], but now I have structure and support, and I can focus on performing my best.”
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Prema is one of the most successful lower formulae teams, considered to be the breeding ground of top-notch talent. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is a product of Prema, highlighting the team’s potential. Here’s hoping they succeed in having Jamie Chadwick as an F1 driver.
