Three-time W Series champion Jamie Chadwick has admitted that being a prominent female driver on the single-seater ladder meant her off days were often heavily scrutinised as a reflection of her gender.
Speaking on the Significant Figures podcast, Chadwick opened up about the pressure of representing women in motorsport.
“I did, but more because when I wasn’t fast, I just want to be slow. I don’t want to have to… if I am slow, it’s not because I’m a woman. I’m slow because I’m slow today. Just let me be slow,” Chadwick said of feeling the pressure.
“If I was fast every day, then I’d happily be waving the female flag and be like, ‘Look what we can do.’ And I mean, that is the sport, well, some people are good every day, but I’m not good every day. And that is a weight that I carried.
“And now not so much because there are so many more women in the sport. I feel like it’s less so. But four or five years ago, there were so few of us competing at whatever level we’re competing at that it felt like the eyeballs are on you as a woman rather than as a racing driver. And if you don’t do a good job, then, like I say, that reflects on the gender to a degree.”
Jamie Chadwick, Jaguar TCS Racing
Photo by: Alex Bierens de Haan / LAT Images via Getty Images
After making history as the first female and youngest champion of the British GT Championship in 2015 and racing in the British Formula 3 Championship in 2017 and 2018, Chadwick raced in the all-female W Series.
She secured three consecutive W Series championships between 2019 and 2022 before the Briton moved to the Indy NXT championship, where she became the first woman to win a race on a road or street course.
Chadwick has also raced in the European Le Mans Series and Extreme E and serves as a Williams Racing ambassador and Williams Driver Academy adviser for F1 Academy.
