How Chadwick continues to influence the future of Formula 1

Chadwick has not had an easy path due to a lack of opportunities and, more often that not due to a lack of funding. A seat in Formula 3 can easily cost over £2 million.

As she understands how hard it is for women in motorsport, she is making it easier for girls to get their start. For International Women’s Day, Chadwick launched a karting initiative for her series, the Jamie Chadwick Series, offering 5,000 test sessions to girls under 18.

In an exclusive conversation with GPblog, she says: “For me personally, I fell into the sport a bit by accident and so there's always sort of this feeling in my head of there's so many sports you get to try and you get to experience but motorsport doesn't always sort of give that opportunity because it isn't necessarily the most successful and it isn't the most obvious way to start.”

Chadwick added, “This is a way to try and encourage as many people to try as possible. Not everyone's probably going to leave driving a go-kart for the first time and want to be a racing driver, but hopefully, there are a few that do and are encouraged by it and do enjoy it and ultimately want to do it more.”

The Briton is a three-time W Series winner and currently races for IDEC Sport in the European Le Mans Series. She has set foot in several series, including Formula E with Jaguar, WEC with Genesis Magma Racing, and Formula 1 with Williams Racing, where she serves as the F1 Academy Ambassador.

Speaking on her role, with the series set for the first race of its season in this weekend's Chinese GP, she said, “The role with Williams really is trying to help support their F1 Academy entry. There's also an ambassadorial role there. I've been with the team for a long time, and it's been amazing to see their sort of progress and shift in performance.”

Chadwick herself has taken many different paths to reach her level of success. She said, “I always feel like it's not been mapped out as such from the beginning, so it's kind of gone in a few directions, but I think it's nice in a way because I have had the opportunity to experience lots of different things.”

In 2024, Chadwick readjusted her career goals and is now set on WEC, but before that, she was once an F1 hopeful. On making that decision, she said, “No regret at all. I mean, Formula One is such a high level, and it is the highest level. There are 20, well, now 22 seats on the grid. And there's always got to be an element of realism in in anyone's career, and I wasn't getting any younger.”

The LMP2 driver added, “I want to have a career in the sport and ultimately looking at endurance racing, which I now committed to over the last year, and going into this year, I think that's where the opportunities really are for me to have a career and find a home.“

Chadwick hopes to continue progressing in her endurance career and has her sights set on WEC. “[It’s] definitely something I'm aiming to do. There's still for sure a big gap. The difference between being a fully-fledged race driver in what I'm aiming to be in, which is hypercar, is one of the highest levels in endurance racing.”

As she works with Genesis Magma Racing as a reserve and development driver, Chadwick confirmed she would be at the 24 Hours of Le Mans again and at all WEC races this year.

However, as far as making the official step up from reserve driver, she said, “It's still a big gap to go from where I am to there. But with everything that I'm aiming to do over the next year or two, it's for sure something I'm still aiming for and having the relationship with Genesis and getting the time behind the wheel in the hypercar is huge for me. It's given me a huge opportunity, and no better place to prove myself than being in the same car as the car I want to be in, in the future.”

The ELMS driver has a busy year ahead of her, as she will also be rejoining Sky Sports' experts and analysts panel for the 2026 season.