W Series legend Jamie Chadwick joins hosts Dave Vitty and fellow racing driver Jason Plato on this week’s award-winning podcast Fuelling Around to discuss her career so far, her dream of making it to Formula One, and a phone call from a member of the Jenner family.
Chadwick, is a three-time W Series champion and also holds the record for the most wins, podiums, pole positions and points in the competition’s history. She is also a development driver for Formula One team Williams, and competes in the Indy NXT for Andretti Autosport.
The 24-year-old discusses her love for motorsport, how she started, and how she had to compete with males during her early career.
Jamie Chadwick discusses women’s entry into motorsport
Chadwick also delves into earning her place on merit, but emphasises how important it is to give women a chance to compete in motorsport. “I definitely think there are things we can do within the sport, without it being I guess reverse discrimination, or whatever the term is,” Chadwick says.
“I strongly believe the W Series has been quite good in bridging that gap, because the way I look at W Series is, yes we want more girls starting at go karting levels and starting at grassroots, but W Series is bridging that experience gap with the girls that are currently already involved in the sport.
“The girls like me that started relatively late didn’t necessarily have the perfect trajectory through the sport of doing the steps I needed to do maybe earlier on, but it’s helping me get that experience.
“It’s funding that and with that it’s giving positive role models to young girls looking at it. That’s not just drivers, that’s mechanics too, my mechanic this year, she was my number two mechanic, but my number one mechanic taught her a lot and let her almost be my number one, and has now got a job at Alpine.
“So it’s the opportunity and bridging that experience gap is going to help in the long term and ultimately, yes it is just a numbers game, but the more girls that are involved generally in the sport, the more culturally it will begin to change and the more inviting it will be for young girls coming through.”
Plenty more episodes of Fuelling Around to enjoy
Series five is racing into the home straight, but there’s still a wealth of previous episodes from four series for you to listen to.
A host of celebrity guests have littered the award-winning offering that has so far produced a string of excellent episodes to listen to.
You can also tune into Fuelling Around on Spotify, Apple, YouTube or various other platforms if you want to see what all the fuss is about.