Chadwick: F1 'desperate' to see a female driver succeed

Jamie Chadwick, the winner of this years' inaugural all-female W Series championship, believes Formula 1 is desperate to welcome a woman racer among its ranks.

Chadwick's triumph in the W Series will hopefully provide a springboard for the 21-year-old racer to step up to the next level, the FIA Formula 3 series.

Longer-term, the young Brit and Williams development driver aims to become the first woman to race in the F1 world championship since Italian Lella Lombardi in 1976.

"It would be unbelievable," Chadwick told talkSPORT. "It’s the ultimate goal. It’s every young driver’s dream.

"That dream becomes a little bit more of a closer reality with the relationship I have with Williams.

"I really want to achieve it for myself. I really want to be there on merit and because I deserve to be, and fingers crossed that happens soon."

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Chadwick's working relationship with Williams involves a busy simulator programme at Grove and a presence trackside with the team on race weekends.

"[Working with Williams] has been unbelievable for me," she admitted.

"Getting that kind of experience with an F1 team has been awesome. For it to be Williams, a British team who have so much history, has been extra special and I’ve learnt a lot from them so far.

"Now I’ve done the job that I needed to this year by securing the W Series Championship, I’m hoping that I can go to them with a bit more of an argument to do some more stuff for them next year."

Formula 1 will head into a new era in 2021 under the stewardship and guidance of commercial rights holder Liberty Media. Chadwick believes the sport is ripe for a female presence.

"The sport’s obviously heavily male dominated but in my view, I don’t think there’s a reason for that," she explained.

"I think the sport is desperate to see a female succeed. The sport does want a female racing driver, but they’ve got to be there on merit.

"Some of the most influential people in motorsport are women. For example, my team boss at Williams is Claire Williams.

"We’re starting to see more and more. It’s a numbers game and we just need more women to rise to the top in all degrees of the sport and hopefully, that will end this male dominance that we’ve got."

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