Jamie Chadwick has reiterated her aim to be in Formula 1 within the next five years, as she closes in on her third straight W Series title.
Chadwick heads to Singapore with a 75-point lead in the W Series Drivers’ Championship but she’s struggled to move up to F3 or F2 in previous years despite her success.
“From my side, if I am in F1 I want to be within the next five years, so it does go against what he says,” Chadwick told Sky Sports.
“I don’t want it to feel like we are still on the outside looking in.
“It now needs to become very much a sport where everyone is able to compete on a level playing field.
“If it’s not me, I am confident another young girl has the opportunity to. You want them to start and be inspired and know that they have the opportunity.”
After clinching the title in Austin last year, all signs pointed to Chadwick leaving W Series and moving up in the junior ladder.
Despite being a member of the Williams driver academy, she was unable to get the right seat and her return to the championship was criticised, though if she wins again this year she’ll have earned her super license for F1.
“I know that if I have success in the right feeder series than I’ll be in Formula 1,” Chadwick said to the media.
“Options are open, Formula 3 and Formula 2 and Indy Lights are kind of the options I’ve been looking at. Conversations are ongoing in Europe and America.
“Even the likes of Andretti giving me the opportunity to test, they believe in it.”
Domenicali and Rosberg weigh in
F1 CEO Stefano Domenicalli came under fire recently after comments about the likelihood of a female driver making their F1 debut any time soon.
“Realistically speaking, I don’t see a girl in Formula 1 in the next five years unless something like a sort of meteorite comes into the earth. That is very unlikely,” Domenicali said ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix.
“We believe that it is crucial in this moment to try to give the maximum possibility to women to come to Formula 1.
“We believe that for girls to be at the same level of competition with the guys they need to be at the same, or more or less the same, age when they can start to fight on the track at the level of Formula 2 or Formula 3.”
However, Nico Rosberg hit back in a column Die Welt. The 2016 world champion runs an Extreme E team, the championship requires a male and female driver per team and Rosberg’s team won the 2021 teams’ and drivers’ titles.
“We need to promote women in motorsport more strongly, as we do in Extreme E, and that goes all the way to Formula 1! For this, we need financial, but also idealistic support,” Rosberg wrote.
“Does Formula 1 also need a quota in order to finally make progress in terms of equality? I don’t have a final solution, but I have learned one thing in Formula 1: where there’s a will, there’s a way. And there is a solution for everything!”
