Jamie Chadwick: "I don't think I'm ready" for F1 yet

Williams development driver Jamie Chadwick says that she isn't ready for F1, even if Williams gave her the opportunity. The reigning W Series champion is probably the best hope for a female F1 driver right now, having been signed up to the Williams academy last year.

Chadwick won two races in the first season of the W Series and was on the podium at all but one of the races. She will defend her title later this year, with super licence points up for grabs this time round.

15 points are on offer for the winner of the series, with 40 needed before a licence granted. Despite developing as a driver, Chadwick says she isn't ready for the big time just yet.

She told RACER: “There is always like a bit of a road plan. The way I’ve looked at it is there’s sort of the typical career path that’s required to get to Formula 1 and so far my career has not gone in any sense of that direction at all! It’s gone left and right more than any other career. I don’t think there’s a fixed way to get there.

“I know what I want to achieve; I want to be ready for Formula 1 if I get there, so even if Claire [Williams] turned around to me and said, ‘Right, we’ve got an extra seat, do you want it?’ I probably at this point would be very, very reluctant to take it because I don’t think I’m ready yet.”

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Chadwick added: “I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding around FIA F3 and FIA F2, and no one quite understands why I don’t just go and do a championship there. It doesn’t quite work like that.

“There’s probably one team you want to be with, that team’s double the price [to join] of any other team and it’s a bit of a mad world. So on my side it’s just picking the right opportunities and not rushing it. I know people think that you have to be in Formula 1 tomorrow but I don’t think I do. So I’ve got time and it’s about making the right choices in that time.

“I think for me it’s all about the right preparation, development process and ideally in the next couple of years there’s the time for me to be able to actually go and have a serious conversation about what might be available."