Jamie Chadwick will be using the two-month break between this weekend’s Hungarian GP and the W Series’ next stop in newly-announced Singapore to think about her future—one that might see the double-champion spending more time Stateside.

By Rachel Steinberg

The 24-year-old picked up her seventh consecutive victory last weekend in France despite starting from behind pole for just the second time this season, and now leads the championship with a perfect 125 points with half the campaign complete.  

While Chadwick has seemed reluctant to discuss next steps, she opened up after moving a whopping 70 points clear of second-placed compatriot Abbi Pulling. 

“My goal is always to keep progressing,” she said. “I really do want to step up and I know I still need to perform this year, but I’ve still got one eye on the future as well. Any feeder series is the goal, Formula 3, Formula 2, but I’m also actually looking at America, opportunities potentially in Indy Lights as well.” 

“I’m exploring all options. I think we’ve got a nice big break after Budapest, so I think there will be some time to really understand what we’re capable of and what the best opportunity is.” 

Chadwick has never made her American aspirations a secret. This season she is the standout Brit on an otherwise US-dominated team alongside New York state’s Chloe Chambers, with US Olympic decathlon champion Caitlyn Jenner overseeing both as team owner and boss.  

This season will be the first time W Series supports two American GPs, with Chadwick set to take on COTA for a second spin in October after cleaning up in the Miami season-opening double-header. 

With Drive to Survive sparking a massive upsurge in F1 viewership across the pond, W Series CEO Catherine Bond Muir has plainly stated that she sees the USA as the all-female single-seater series’ most tantalising frontier, something Chadwick and the other W Series drivers will hope also translates into more attention from potential sponsors. 

For now, she’ll push for that treble title – Chadwick admitted she’s “in a nice place, championship-wise, so the pressure is a little bit less” – whilst continuing her work in Williams’ academy alongside Logan Sargeant. The winner of back-to-back races for Carlin and taking two poles in F2 this season, including last weekend at Circuit Paul Ricard. 

His success has made the 21-year-old Floridian an outlying candidate to replace Nicholas Latifi next season, at the very least impressing Jost Capito enough to declare this week he was “absolutely convinced” the 21-year-old will have an F1 seat in the future.  

“It’s cool because the F2 qualifier is often just before ours,” added Chadwick, “And I see Logan put it on pole and I know the pressure’s on me as well.”

“I get on with Logan really well so it’s great to see him having a big run of success in F2. It’s just nice to be in the Williams academy, the academy is going quite short and I think that’s given us all a big push knowing that there are opportunities there, so just doing the best I can.” 

Header photo credit: W Series