Two time W-Series Champion Jamie Chadwick opens up about her early racing days and growing up in a male dominated society.
Chadwick is arguably the most famous female motorsport athlete in the world today. The Brit has two W-Series titles under her belt and is a part of the Williams F1 team as reserve and development driver.
Despite winning the W-Series twice, Chadwick never got the opportunity to make the step up to F3 or F2. After winning her second title, she highlighted her desire to move up the ladder, but funding issues forced her to return to the all-female racing series.
In a recent article on The Players Tribune, Chadwick opened up about her life as a young female racing driver. She starts her story by saying she was one of just four girls in her school batch, and she spent most of her time with the boys.
“At the time, I wasn’t particularly aware of it, but looking back it’s kinda strange to think that I was basically a lone girl playing football in a field with 100 boys,” she wrote.
The Williams academy driver then goes on to talk about how she got into racing. She cites her elder brother Ollie as the reason behind her getting into racing. Before that too, the 23-year old had a fond interest in cars.
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Used to do whatever my elder brother Ollie did, says Chadwick
Chadwick describes herself as being ‘Tomboyish’. She used to copy what her older brother Ollie used to, and that’s how she eventually found her way into kart racing.
“I used to just copy my older brother, Ollie,” she continued. “If he was kicking a football in the garden, I was kicking a football in the garden.
“If he wanted to play with cars, then I wanted to play with cars. So, of course, when Ollie started doing a karting championship at our local race track in Castle Combe on Sundays, I was going to do it too.”
“I remember getting so nervous that I couldn’t eat anything the morning before my first race. If you can imagine, I was like 11 or 12 and kitted out in all Ollie’s old hand-me-downs. I looked completely ridiculous!”
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Jamie Chadwick was first behind the wheel of a car aged just five years old!
Chadwick then wrote about her earliest memory behind the wheel of a car. Surprisingly, it came at just the age of five. She describes how she sat on her fathers lap as they steered their car around the paddock of their home.
“I was really little, like five years old, and I would sit on his lap and do the steering. Basically just trying not to hit anything!”
She went on to talk about her growing interest in car. As soon as she was tall enough to reach the brake pedals, she took near-full control of the vehicle.
As the two time W-Series Champion got the hang of driving, she became more and more confident about her ability behind the wheel.
“I would go really slow,” she added. “Like first gear, second gear, get into third and then straight back down into second. “But once I got out there on that track at Castle Combe, racing just felt natural.”
