JAMIE CHADWICK says people should focus on young girls getting involved in motorsport and not who will be the next woman in F1.
The 27-year-old is the UK’s most decorated woman in motorsport and has been touted as F1’s next female driver.
Italy’s Lella Lombardi was the last woman to compete in an F1 race, in 1976.
Chadwick has made waves in motorsport and became the first woman to win a British F3 race in 2018 at Brands Hatch, finishing eighth overall that season.
In June 2024 she became the first woman to finish on the podium in Indy NXT since Pippa Mann in 2010 and is also a three-time W-series champ.
Chadwick returned to Silverstone for the first time in three years at the weekend to compete in the fifth round of the European Le Mans Series season.
Alongside team-mates Mathys Jaubert and Daniel Juncadella, she secured their third win in LMP2 to put them back in the title fight with one round remaining.
The Friday before race-day she arranged for 30 Year Five and Six students from a local school to attend the track and participate in a STEM workshop.
As part of the day the girls got to watch Chadwick on track during the first practice session of the weekend.
The day was run alongside Chadwick’s sponsor Mobil1, who she is also an ambassador for, and it gave the girls the opportunity to try the Kart Silverstone facilities which are set to open later this year.
Chadwick said: “There’s naturally always been a big fixation on getting a woman to Formula One and I think that is something that we’d all love to see.
“But at the same time, you look at F1, it’s such small numbers. If we can just increase generally speaking the level of women in the sport, and the level of female professional drivers that we have, then I think that’s a good starting point.”
Chadwick launched the Jamie Chadwick Series two years ago, which has seen a dramatic 1700 per cent increase in girls participating in karting.
She has also been dipping her toes into punditry this season and shone alongside Nico Rosberg for Sky’s coverage of Monza.
When asked who she thinks will win the F1 title this season, Chadwick replied: “Oscar Piastri is incredibly solid, he’s not phased by anything.
“He’s an incredibly high performer and he makes sure his bad days are never that bad. That’s the key to winning a title.
“Lando has got his work cut out now with the points deficit but that being said, anything can happen. You saw what happened to Lando in Zandvoort, that can happen later in the year to Oscar.
“Suddenly it’s nip and tuck again, but I think Oscar’s just so unfazed and he’s got such a striking character that it’s going to be hard for Lando to fight for those points back.”
