Jamie Chadwick on women in motorsport

With a career so far spanning 14 years, Jamie Chadwick is the UK’s most-decorated female racing driver and has been a powerhouse for change in motorsport in recent years. After beginning her karting career in 2010, Jamie has competed in a range of open and closed wheel racing categories, from British GT and Extreme E to British F3, which are only some of the experiences that led her to where she finds herself today.

Jamie joined the all-female racing category, W Series, in 2019 and stormed to victory to claim the inaugural title. She then won the Championship two more times – in 2021 and 2022 after an altered 2020 season due to COVID – and, with the series, she raced on the Formula 1 support calendar, putting herself in the spotlight on a global stage.

In her first year of W Series, Jamie also joined the iconic Williams Racing’s Driver Academy as their Development Driver, a role she has maintained since, and one she continues to thrive in today.

For 2023, Jamie moved her racing career across the pond to the United States of America, where she joined another iconic force in motor racing – Andretti Autosport – to become the first woman to compete full-time in INDY NXT, formerly Indy Lights, in 13 years. Her rookie campaign consisted of 14 races, across which she accumulated 262 points, finishing twelfth in the championship out of 25. Jamie is continuing with Andretti Autosport for another season in INDY NXT for 2024.

Having amassed an array of achievements in her on-track career, Jamie has been advocating for change in motorsport for girls and young women. This year, Jamie is launching an initiative in partnership with Daytona Motorsport to provide opportunities for all females above the age of eight to try karting for free and offer mentorship at Daytona kart venues located across the UK. Then, Jamie’s all-female racing championship, ‘The Jamie Chadwick Series’ will launch later in 2024.

The brand-new Sky Sports Editions series sees leading women across sport share their own original stories and mixes sport with fashion as they design their own magazine cover. Episode five launched today, on International Women’s Day, and Jamie talks about being a woman in motorsport with fellow racing driver and current F1 presenter Naomi Schiff, as well as the pressures that come alongside racing and how she balances her professional and personal lives.

It is no secret that women are underrepresented in motorsport. Over recent years, across a range of racing categories and within the working paddocks, the representation of women has grown and the conversations around why more women should be working in motorsport continues to thrive.

Both Jamie Chadwick and Naomi Schiff have raced in W Series and have developed a friendship off-track over the years. In the brand-new Sky Sports Editions episode, Jamie and Naomi sit down to talk all things motorsport, including what they believe to be the most significant moment for women in motorsport.

“Without a doubt W Series,” Naomi says. “There was a direct impact in terms of female license holders, mechanics, just so many people were inspired.

“They really made a platform to expose the capabilities and opportunities for women in the sport.”

Jamie agrees, “without it [W Series], we both wouldn’t be sat here.”

W Series played a vital role in showing girls and women of all ages that it is possible to be successful as a racing driver, and that there are opportunities out there. In late 2022, the W Series season ended prematurely due to financial issues, but the push for change didn’t slow down.

In November 2022, F1 announced the all-new F1 Academy, a racing series for young women which would help them prepare for higher levels of competition, and seeing women racing at the very top is one thing Jamie can’t wait to see.

“Ultimately, I want to see so many more women at the top level of the sport and inspiring younger generations to get involved in the first place,” she says. “That’s across the whole board, not just drivers but mechanics, engineers, the whole sport becoming more diverse.

“Having that equal opportunity to be involved in the sport we know and love.”

Away from motorsport, Jamie is known to be quite a closed book, which has been a way for her to keep her on-track life separate from her off-track life.

“One thing I’ve tried to do on race weekends is just preserve energy,” she says in her Sky Sports Editions episode. “I find my social battery is not that high so I try not to use too much of it up.”

Like many other racing drivers, Jamie is no stranger to feeling pressure. In an industry like motorsport, renowned for being always moving and fast paced, both on and off track, coping with pressure and keeping a cool head is a vital skill for any racing driver, especially on race weekend.

“In the car, I try and be relaxed,” Jamie tells Naomi. “Out of the car, I definitely have meltdowns and moments where I’m not cool, calm and collected but I know I operate best when I am so I’m always trying to focus in on that.”

With the stresses of pressure comes figuring out ways to deal with the weight of a race weekend on your shoulders, and even after competing in motorsport for as long as Jamie has, it’s still something she has to deal with.

“I try to always bring it back to what I’m there for and what I’m trying to do, not get wrapped up in all the extra noise around it,” Jamie says. “Confidence is a big one. I find when I’m confident then I find it very easy to be myself and do the job I need to do.

“When I’m not confident, that’s not so easy.”

Racing drivers across the board follow some sort of pre-race superstition to bring them luck and feel confident when they’re out on track and Jamie’s is a unique one. She has the word ‘confidence’ written inside her racing gloves.

“I wrote confidence because I was going into the last race of W Series, when things were going well I was doing really well and when they weren’t, I was struggling a little bit,” she says. “It all came down in my head to confidence.

“I spoke with a psychologist before and a lot of it came down to, ‘okay, what can you do to remind yourself to back yourself and be confident?’”

Jamie’s 2024 racing season begins this Saturday, with the INDY NXT Qualifying session, followed by Sunday’s race, which you can watch on Sky Sports F1.

Episode five of Sky Sports Editions is available to watch on Sky Sports YouTube.

Image credit: Sky Sports