Jamie Chadwick - First competitive female driver in F1?

[rjfp1962]

Very impressed with Jamie Chadwick's drive yesterday in Austin, TX and in securing her 2nd W Series Championship title.
She has close links with the Williams team, so could she eventually become the first competitive female driver in F1?

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.jamie-c...

Edited by rjfp1962 on Monday 25th October 10:55

[TheDeuce]

rjfp1962 said:

Very impressed with Jamie Chadwick's drive yesterday in Austin, TX and in securing her 2nd W Series Championship title.
Has close links with the Williams team, so could she be competitive in F1 as it's first female driver?

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.jamie-c...

An absolutely colossal leap to F1, we'll need to see her in F3 at the very least to even start to see if the ceiling of her talent is high enough to allow for further progression. Bare in mind that F3 is itself a step up from FW...

Also, sorry to disappoint but she wouldn't be F1's first female driver! There have been several. All utterly crap unfortunately.. There have been five of them so far and together in their careers they managed to amass a total of half of one point.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_Formu...

[Sandpit Steve]

There’s a long way to go from a regional F3 car to F1, but she’s got a great opportunity now. Let’s hope her prize money and Williams connection, can see her in FIA F3 next season - maybe even with a young driver test or an FP1 session.

I made a wild prediction on the WS thread that the next female F1 driver will be Abbi Pulling - she beat the whole WS field bar Chadwick in only her third weekend in the car, and is only 18. There’s also a Japanese teenager (Juju Noda?) winning in F4 over there while still at school, who looks very promising for the future.

[TheDeuce]

Even if one makes it to F1, even allowing for the fact they may be selected over arguably more capable male drivers because of the big PR boost that will come from having a female driver... they then also have to actually be competitive once in F1. It's one thing to hope a female driver reaches F1, but to dare to dream one arrives and is fighting for podiums... That seems so far off based on performances to date but would be stunning to see

[Leithen]

TheDeuce said:

rjfp1962 said:

Very impressed with Jamie Chadwick's drive yesterday in Austin, TX and in securing her 2nd W Series Championship title.
Has close links with the Williams team, so could she be competitive in F1 as it's first female driver?

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.jamie-c...

An absolutely colossal leap to F1, we'll need to see her in F3 at the very least to even start to see if the ceiling of her talent is high enough to allow for further progression. Bare in mind that F3 is itself a step up from FW...

Also, sorry to disappoint but she wouldn't be F1's first female driver! There have been several. All utterly crap unfortunately.. There have been five of them so far and together in their careers they managed to amass a total of half of one point.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_Formu...

Hopefully she will get the opportunity to develop her skills fully, and who knows, F1 might ultimately await.

Lombardi was certainly not utterly crap. Bloody quick and fully deserved to be in F1.

[LargeRed]

I've been watching here efforts in Extreme E series.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/motorsport/53545698

[mw88]

I don't think the timings will work for her unfortunately - I think she'll end up in a test/reserve role like Wolff was, but she's already (slightly) older than drivers like Norris, Tsunoda, Schumacher and Stroll.

An F1 car is a completely different beast to a 260 BHP W-Series car.

[TheDeuce]

Leithen said:

Lombardi was certainly not utterly crap. Bloody quick and fully deserved to be in F1.

Utterly crap was perhaps unfair in Lombardi's case. She was competitive, although is it fair to say she was overall only average in terms of talent on the grid at the time?

Career best finish of sixth after promotion and beaten by her team mate.

She's certainly the strongest female racer in F1 to date. Somewhat depressing to consider that still stands after nearly FIFTY years of supposed progress!

[TheDeuce]

mw88 said:

I don't think the timings will work for her unfortunately - I think she'll end up in a test/reserve role like Wolff was, but she's already (slightly) older than drivers like Norris, Tsunoda, Schumacher and Stroll.

An F1 car is a completely different beast to a 260 BHP W-Series car.

Timing? If she's competitive enough and amasses the require SL points, an F1 team will take her - irrespective of age. A competitive female driver in F1 would be a massive PR boost and attract previously unreachable audiences and sponsors to the sport.

No ones going to worry she's a couple years older than ideal when that level of commercial value is linked to her.

[Leithen]

TheDeuce said:

Leithen said:

Lombardi was certainly not utterly crap. Bloody quick and fully deserved to be in F1.

Utterly crap was perhaps unfair in Lombardi's case. She was competitive, although is it fair to say she was overall only average in terms of talent on the grid at the time?

Career best finish of sixth after promotion and beaten by her team mate.

She's certainly the strongest female racer in F1 to date. Somewhat depressing to consider that still stands after nearly FIFTY years of supposed progress!

Like so many, she never had the chance to compete in anything at the front end, so we will never know how good she could have been. She had the respect of her male peers which says it all however.

There hasn't been any progress since her and Mouton. Analyse the stats and it is depressingly understandable. A small fraction of the population takes part in a sport and why is anyone surprised that that small fraction doesn't produce anyone that makes it to the top? Toss in the sexism and misogyny faced by women in motorsport and it's even worse.

IMHO we shouldn't dismiss anyone's prospects, instead we ought to be championing any possible opportunity and lauding anyone who succeeds against the odds. Rather like many have with Hamilton.

[anonymous-user]

Am I right in thinking that Jamie Chadwick actually has the 40 points required to get a Super Licence?

"In 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, requirement 6 was amended where if the three-season window includes the year 2020, then the highest scoring three seasons out of the four previous seasons are to be counted. If a driver has accumulated at least 30 points and is currently competing in any of the Championships reported in Supplement 1 and has been unable to accumulate the 40 points due to "circumstances outside their control or reasons of force majeure", the license may be granted at the discretion of the FIA.[1][2]"

2019 W Series 1st = 15 Points
2019-2020 F3 Asian Championship 4th = 10 Points
2021 W Series 1st = 15 Points

Interestingly enough, Mazepin raced in the 2019-2020 F3 Asian Championship and finished 3rd with 186 points to Jamie's 139 points.

[mw88]

TheDeuce said:

mw88 said:

I don't think the timings will work for her unfortunately - I think she'll end up in a test/reserve role like Wolff was, but she's already (slightly) older than drivers like Norris, Tsunoda, Schumacher and Stroll.

An F1 car is a completely different beast to a 260 BHP W-Series car.

Timing? If she's competitive enough and amasses the require SL points, an F1 team will take her - irrespective of age. A competitive female driver in F1 would be a massive PR boost and attract previously unreachable audiences and sponsors to the sport.

No ones going to worry she's a couple years older than ideal when that level of commercial value is linked to her.

Timing is everything - How many good drivers have come and gone in F1 because the timing isn't right?

There will be some commercial value, but when you've got 18 year olds bringing millions of Rubles to a team she'll have to be more than just competitive.

[End]

Whilst Deuce is slagging off Lella Lombardi's ability as a racer ,she had 2 half decent results at Le Mans 24 hours .

2nd in class in a Lancia Stratos Ferrari .

And having read that link , Giovanni Amati failed to qualify for 3 races entered , replaced by a Damon Hill , who also failed
to qualify same car in 6 out of 8 attempts
Whatever happened to him ?...

Maybe the car was crap !

Edited by End on Monday 25th October 11:47

[TheDeuce]

mw88 said:

TheDeuce said:

mw88 said:

I don't think the timings will work for her unfortunately - I think she'll end up in a test/reserve role like Wolff was, but she's already (slightly) older than drivers like Norris, Tsunoda, Schumacher and Stroll.

An F1 car is a completely different beast to a 260 BHP W-Series car.

Timing? If she's competitive enough and amasses the require SL points, an F1 team will take her - irrespective of age. A competitive female driver in F1 would be a massive PR boost and attract previously unreachable audiences and sponsors to the sport.

No ones going to worry she's a couple years older than ideal when that level of commercial value is linked to her.

Timing is everything - How many good drivers have come and gone in F1 because the timing isn't right?

There will be some commercial value, but when you've got 18 year olds bringing millions of Rubles to a team she'll have to be more than just competitive.

I totally disagree. It would be PR gold for any team - and there are normally at least a couple of teams that can't field a competitive car so will look for other ways to please sponsors and raise positive headlines.

Vaguely competitive I suspect would be enough to get her a drive, regardless of timing.

I do agree that timing is normally everything, for male drivers entering the sport. It shouldn't be any different for a female driver... But for the fist female driver in most fans memory, it will be different.

[TheDeuce]

End said:

Whilst Deuce is slagging off Lella Lombardi's ability as a racer ,she had 2 half decent results at Le Mans 24 hours .

2nd in class in a Lancia Stratos Ferrari .

I said she's about average or less in F1... You counter that by saying she's had two half decent results in Le Mans

Is a couple of half decent results not pretty average? I feel a male driver achieving the same would be labelled as such.

[End]

TheDeuce said:

End said:

Whilst Deuce is slagging off Lella Lombardi's ability as a racer ,she had 2 half decent results at Le Mans 24 hours .

2nd in class in a Lancia Stratos Ferrari .

I said she's about average or less in F1... You counter that by saying she's had two half decent results in Le Mans

Is a couple of half decent results not pretty average? I feel a male driver achieving the same would be labelled as such.

How many F1 titles did Tom Kristensen win ?

He's just rubbish driver .

I'm not going to argue with the resident F1 "expert" .

[RacerMike]

mw88 said:

I don't think the timings will work for her unfortunately - I think she'll end up in a test/reserve role like Wolff was, but she's already (slightly) older than drivers like Norris, Tsunoda, Schumacher and Stroll.

An F1 car is a completely different beast to a 260 BHP W-Series car.

And why exactly is the jump any different for her than it would be for anyone else racing regional F3? Or Formula Renault for that matter (Kimi Raikonnen). There's a lot of indirect/unconscious sexism when it comes to women in motorsport, and you see a lot more comments about the 'step' being big or performing in a faster car being a 'completely different ball game'. Of course it is, but no one ever makes those comments about promising male drivers do they?

Jamie is easily quick enough to be good in an F1 car. I indirectly raced her in 2015 in British GT (she tended to be out at the same time as my teamate rather than me) and she was only a little bit off her teamate Ross Gunn despite being 16. Ross is out there now in ALMS winning races and Championships in the GTD class and is one of the fastest GT drivers out there, so she's easily got the pace to win, and even at 16 she was a mature head on young shoulders.

[FourWheelDrift]

I've posted this before, but we could have had a competitive female driver in F1 a few years ago - https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single...

[End]

FourWheelDrift said:

I've posted this before, but we could have had a competitive female driver in F1 a few years ago - https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single...

Thanks for posting that ,had never heard of her before , a tragically short life .

[mw88]

RacerMike said:

mw88 said:

I don't think the timings will work for her unfortunately - I think she'll end up in a test/reserve role like Wolff was, but she's already (slightly) older than drivers like Norris, Tsunoda, Schumacher and Stroll.

An F1 car is a completely different beast to a 260 BHP W-Series car.

And why exactly is the jump any different for her than it would be for anyone else racing regional F3? Or Formula Renault for that matter (Kimi Raikonnen). There's a lot of indirect/unconscious sexism when it comes to women in motorsport, and you see a lot more comments about the 'step' being big or performing in a faster car being a 'completely different ball game'. Of course it is, but no one ever makes those comments about promising male drivers do they?

Jamie is easily quick enough to be good in an F1 car. I indirectly raced her in 2015 in British GT (she tended to be out at the same time as my teamate rather than me) and she was only a little bit off her teamate Ross Gunn despite being 16. Ross is out there now in ALMS winning races and Championships in the GTD class and is one of the fastest GT drivers out there, so she's easily got the pace to win, and even at 16 she was a mature head on young shoulders.

I didn't it was different. I said she was too old

Stick Doohan or Hauger in an F1 car tomorrow and I'd say it's a big step - Tsunoda and Mazepin struggled from F2.. Verstappen and Raikonnen proved everyone wrong.