Chadwick broadens search for young female racing drivers

Jamie Chadwick has extended her grassroots karting initiative to find new female racing talent, opening it up to girls as young as eight-years-old.

The three-time W Series champion, who also made history in 2024 as the first woman to win an Indy NXT road course race, says the goal is to uncover talent but also encourage female participation in motorsport after launching the project in 2024.

Her nine-round junior series will run from February to December at Daytona Motorsport circuits across Great Britain with two specified age groups: cadets (8-11) and juniors (12-15).

The winners from each class will receive support and personal mentorship from Chadwick for the following year of their racing careers.

Chadwick told Autosport: “There was so much pressure and focus on getting a female driver to Formula 1, I think we lost sight of what we want to do which is to create a diverse sport and get more women involved in the first place.

“When I look back to how I started in the sport, I was really fortunate. I had an older brother that helped me get into it, and he was the reason that I went go-karting in the first place. 

“It was an arrive-and-drive set-up and my family knew nothing about the next steps in the sport or anything like that.

“So what we looked at is creating this environment that means you can make friends, it’s community.

“They can try it for the first time and be comfortable, confident and they can know that karting is open to them.

“We also want to see what we can do in terms of help and support beyond, to give them opportunities and leg-ups into further opportunities in the sport.

“Tackling that at grassroots level has been the focus. So that’s why having the eight to 11 year old category is so big for us, because really that’s the age you kind of want to get started in the sport.

“I started when I was 12, which was really on the later side, but that eight-year-old age is what we want to target now.”

The announcement comes after a successful inaugural year for The Jamie Chadwick Series, which increased female participation across Daytona karting tracks nationwide.

JamIe Chadwick Race School

Photo by: Jamie Chadwick Series

Her initiative saw a 1,900 percent increase in female competitive racing and a 400 percent increase in casual racing.

The series is also now the United Kingdom’s biggest all-female karting initiative, reaching over 450 girls across its maiden year.

And with the launch of F1 Academy in 2023, Chadwick hopes to work alongside talent scouts to help teams nurture young prospects.

She added: “Working with the talent scouts is something that I want to bring to this level. We’ve been trying to kind of introduce it slowly but for sure, it’s something that I’ve thought about.

“A lot of them are competing in the British championship equivalents and having success, so I definitely think it’s something that we can look at.”

Chadwick will dovetail her mentoring with television commitments for F1 and Formula E.

Jamie Chadwick, Jaguar TCS Racing

Photo by: Malcolm Griffiths / Motorsport Images

The 26-year-old will continue to explore her driving options in the all-electric series as well, while working at Williams mentoring its F1 Academy driver Lia Block.

It was also recently announced that Chadwick will race as part of Genesis’ LMP2 project in 2025, meaning she will debut at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

“I’d love to try and dovetail that with a bit of other stuff, potentially in America,” she said. “I am also doing some Formula E testing with Jaguar.

“I definitely want to add more to my race calendar but I am still really excited about this year. Le Mans is a race that’s been very high on the bucket list, so I’m excited for that.”