W Series champion Jamie Chadwick has revealed the secret weapon which is allowing her driving career to go from strength to strength: confidence. The 21-year-old driver, who has been lauded as Formula 1’s first female hope in 44 years (since Italian Lella Lombardi started her last Grand Prix in 1976): “I think it’s the same for athletes in all sports – it’s about confidence and self-belief, about backing yourself”, says Jamie Chadwick in an interview at the W Series website. “There are a lot of variables in motorsport. Anything can happen, anything can go right or wrong, but if you know you’ve prepared and done the best job possible in the build-up to the weekend, then it’s just about having the confidence to see it through.”
Born in Bath, Jamie Chadwick spent her first years in the Isle of Man, before moving to Gloucestershire, where she attended Cheltenham College, and now lives, near Tetbury. Her interest in racing began in 2010 when she started karting, aged 11, achieving numerous wins and podiums at club level in the Junior series.
Jamie started last year’s inaugural W Series championship in a strong position after a series of high-profile wins – but she admits the all-female set-up stretched her in surprising ways. She says: “I’m always going to remember the 2019 W Series. Aside from the big high of winning it, there was a nice element of 20 female racing drivers being given an opportunity and all being in the same boat. None of us really knew what to expect going into it, but we all bonded and gained a level of respect for one another as a result.
Jamie’s parents work in finance and property. Though they are far from being dyed-in-the-wool racing people, they have backed their daughter’s dream to the hilt. “It was a big investment early on for my dad. He’s a businessman so he can’t quite work out the logic of some of the decisions that get made in motorsport, but he can see how much both my brother and I have learned from it.”
Ultimately, Jamie says she has her brother Ollie to thank for leading her to a sport which is now an all-consuming passion. She recalls: “My brother went to a karting party. He was tiny when he was younger so very light and quick. He fell in love with it and persuaded my parents to invest. By the time I came along, he’d been my guinea pig, if you see what I mean. From my side, it was random in terms of a career path – there was no obvious route – so I just followed the path of something I enjoyed. The opportunity was given to me to have a go and I jumped in.”
Jamie, who was born in Bath and attended the private Cheltenham College school, is now close to her brother – a businessman who sells electric scooters – but relations were not always so smooth. “My brother and I would play football in the garden and every time it would end in a massive argument – we just couldn’t do it. Of course, I’m going to say it was more his fault than mine.
And what about karting rivalry? “Ah, well, he got into karting a couple of years ahead of me, so he was a little bit quicker and a little bit better to start with. There was only one year where we raced against each other and only one kart race where we raced against each other.
“It was in the wet. I overtook him on the last lap and, when I drove into the pits, I got a massive hit from behind. It was him. There was a three-hour journey home and it was all kicking off in the car with poor Mum and Dad trying to mediate. It’s a lot better now. He’s stopped racing and is very supportive of me. He just gets it and that’s really nice.”
On reflection, Jamie believes her younger school years prepared her for the experience of being a lone female in a largely male-dominated sport. She says: “I was at a really small prep school which had only four girls in my year so that meant that in break times we’d all play football with the boys. So, in my head, being a girl in the minority never seemed odd. When I got to karting it was exactly the same – just a continuation of what already felt normal.”
Being a high-profile racing driver is now a normal part of Jamie’s identity, but does she ever consider trading it all in for something less high-octane? “I was in Thailand not long ago and I thought, ‘I could definitely move out here and have a coconut shack and an easy life.’” But then she pauses, laughs and adds: “No, not really. My life is now racing. If I couldn’t drive for whatever reason, I think my Plan B would be to try to get a team principal role or something similar. I’ve learned too much in this world to turn back now."
“My sole focus is on being a Formula 1 driver, and that’s a good place for me to be mentally. I’m very relaxed in the car: it gives me a feeling of calm. You’re in the car and you’re on your own. OK, you’ve got people on the radio, but, in the end, you’re in the car on your own.”
Of all her female rivals, Jamie currently seems to have the edge on achieving that elusive Formula 1 dream. Williams took her on as a development driver at the beginning of 2019 and she walked away with US$500,000 prize money after winning W Series in the same year. So would she change anything about a sport that looks set to catapult her into the history books?