Who is Jamie Chadwick? Discover the British racing driver’s journey from British GT and W Series titles to INDY NXT, endurance racing, and her latest Williams F1 test.
Jamie Chadwick has spent much of her career crossing boundaries that had rarely been crossed by women in motorsport. The British driver has won championships, raced in multiple forms of motorsport, and built a long-standing relationship with Williams Racing, but her career has never followed a conventional route toward the top of single-seater racing.
Born on May 20, 1998, Chadwick began racing karts in 2010 before quickly progressing through Britain’s junior racing scene. Her first major breakthrough came in 2015 when she won the British GT Championship in the GT4 class with Beechdean Motorsport, becoming the first woman to win the championship. That success eventually led her toward single-seaters, where she would become one of the most recognizable female drivers of her generation.
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How Did Jamie Chadwick Become A Champion?
Chadwick moved into British Formula 3 in 2017 and remained in the championship for a second season in 2018. During that second campaign, she made history again by becoming the first woman to win a British F3 race when she took victory at Brands Hatch. She also won the MRF Challenge title during the 2018-19 winter season.
Her biggest opportunity arrived in 2019 with the launch of W Series, a championship created specifically to provide female drivers with a route into higher levels of motorsport. Chadwick won the inaugural championship and simultaneously became a Williams Driver Academy driver. She retained the W Series title in 2021 before completing a hat-trick in 2022. Across those three championship-winning seasons, she established herself as the series’ defining driver, winning five races in her final campaign alone.
Her relationship with Williams was important throughout this period. She worked with the team in its simulator and continued to develop her links with Formula 1 while racing elsewhere. That connection remains in place today, with Chadwick serving as a Williams ambassador and F1 Academy adviser.
What Happened When Jamie Chadwick Moved To America?
After winning her third W Series title, Chadwick made a significant career decision. Instead of remaining in the championship, she moved to the United States for the 2023 INDY NXT season with Andretti Autosport. The move represented a new test. INDY NXT is the main development category immediately below IndyCar, and Chadwick became the first woman in 13 years to compete full-time in the series. Her rookie season was largely about adapting to new cars, circuits, and racing formats, and she finished 12th in the championship with a best result of sixth.
Her second season produced the breakthrough she had been chasing. In 2024, Chadwick finished third at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course before taking pole position and victory at Road America. That victory made her the first woman to win an INDY NXT race on a road course and the first woman to claim a road-course pole in the championship. The result also earned her an opportunity to test an IndyCar for Andretti later that year. However, she ultimately moved toward endurance racing rather than returning for a third full INDY NXT season.
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Where Is Jamie Chadwick Racing Now?
Chadwick’s career has taken another turn since leaving INDY NXT. In 2025, she moved into endurance racing through the Genesis Magma Racing Trajectory Programme and competed in the European Le Mans Series with IDEC Sport. Her first season produced three LMP2 class victories and third place in the championship standings alongside her teammates. In 2026, Genesis Magma Racing retained her as part of its Trajectory Programme, while she also became an official reserve driver for the team’s FIA World Endurance Championship programme.
She also made history at the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans by becoming the first woman to drive a Hypercar during the event’s official Test Day, taking the wheel of Genesis Magma Racing’s GMR-001. Then came another major milestone. On September 24, 2026, Chadwick completed a test of Williams’ 2025 Formula 1 car at Portimao. She completed 32 laps of the FW47, becoming only the second woman to drive a Williams F1 car after Susie Wolff’s 2015 test.
The test does not represent a Formula 1 race opportunity, but it adds another significant chapter to a career that has already covered British GT, Formula 3, W Series, Extreme E, INDY NXT, and endurance racing. At 28, Chadwick’s story is therefore no longer simply about becoming the first woman to achieve a particular milestone. It is about building a career across different disciplines while continuing to create opportunities for the generation of female racers coming behind her. With her Williams relationship continuing, an active role in endurance racing and another Formula 1 test now completed, what could the next stage of Jamie Chadwick’s career look like?
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