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Chadwick: 'I'd love to be able to reach the ultimate goal'
- Ludo van Denderen
Jamie Chadwick is racing this season, but it's something the casual European racing fans might miss. The British driver (24) is active in Indy NXT, the step-up class to IndyCar. The dream of advancing to Formula 1 has certainly not been given up by the Williams Racing Academy driver.
Chadwick won the first (and last?) three editions of the W Series, a racing class for female drivers. As a next step in her career, she initially envisaged being active in Formula 3 this year. "Sadly, teams can show an interest, but you know, you have to fund your seat, and the budget to be with the top teams is now in excess of a million, and more if you add on testing with that," Chadwick explained to GPblog. "And when you add all of that together, you know, it's above and beyond 1.5 million, and without sponsorship and without the support like I have with DHL in America, it's impossible, impossible to bridge the gap.”
Reaching the ultimate goal
Chadwick is happy with the support from Andretti and Williams Racing. By racing in Indy NXT, she seems closer to a place in IndyCar than in Formula 1. "I don't see it as black and white as that. There has to be an option in both, obviously. Now I'm going over to race in Indy NXT. Of course, I would love to be able to step up into IndyCar. And I see that as being a really amazing opportunity to have. But that said if I'm having success in IndyCar, or you know, over in America, then I'd like to think that there will be an opportunity - or hopefully an opportunity - to come back to Europe and, whether it’s Formula 2 or Formula 1, you know, I'd love to be able to reach the ultimate goal of that.”
The past has proven that it is easier to advance to IndyCar from the American junior classes than it is to reach Formula 1 via F3 and F2. "There's definitely a really good progression and the way that the prizes are done, especially this year. If you win in each category, you are given the opportunity to graduate with funded seats in the championship up," Chadwick responded. "So, it's kind of been a proven pathway. We've seen a lot of the guys go all the way through from the junior level all the way up into IndyCar, and yeah, I guess I see that as a really good opportunity to be able to step up.”
A detailed interview with Jamie Chadwick will appear on GPblog soon.