As part of Sky Sports' Check In series, Jamie Chadwick speaks to Hannah Wilkes about her motorsport journey, W Series, F1 and more.
Tuesday 21 April 2020 15:31, UK
Jamie Chadwick is used to life in the fast lane.
She's the reigning W Series champion, a Williams F1 Development driver and an Aston Martin GT driver.
So while the 21-year-old is stuck at home alone in London, it's no surprise that she is approaching lockdown like a training camp - not least because Chadwick is still in the mindset that she could still return to the track next month.
Speaking to Hannah Wilkes as part of Sky Sports' Check In series, she said: "I'm basically treating it as if I'm still going racing at the end of May. I might be."
The W Series, which launched in 2019 in response to the lack of female drivers progressing in motorsport, is set to resume in Russia on May 29th. To date, there has been no announcement about how the coronavirus pandemic will affect the race calendar.
"So it's still something to work towards," Chadwick said optimistically. "Almost like a training camp, so every day I wake up with a purpose.
"I've turned my living room into a home gym… I speak to my trainer on FaceTime every day and we train together."
While Chadwick waits for news, she is still focused on the goals she set at the start of 2020.
"The focus this year is to retain my W Series championship. And with that, a handful of Super License points to potentially give me some FIA F3 races at the end of the year."
It was announced in January that FIA Super License points would be awarded to the top eight finishers in each W Series race - with 15 points for every victory.
Chadwick won two out of the six races on her way to the inaugural title, and due to the success of the competition two additional races are scheduled for 2020.
She explained: "I went into it without huge expectation about what it was going to do for women's sport purely because it was so new. We'd never seen anything like it in our industry.
"From a sporting point of view I knew what I wanted to achieve - to win the championship. But it really has been the biggest springboard of my career so far.
"The correlation between the success I had and the exposure of the W Series gave me the perfect opportunity to get the role at Williams.
"I'm under no illusion that if I want to make Formula 1 there's a lot more that I've got to do and achieve but I really do feel that W series has given me up a first big leg up to try and do that."
With competitive sport in a hiatus, Chadwick is pleased to already have some races under her belt this year after competing in the F3 Asian Championship. She finished fourth overall which means she already has 10 out of the 40 points required for her Super License.
"For me championships are won and lost in the off season.
"Last year that's where I feel I gained a real advantage by racing in India and Asia in the winter. That gave me a big leg up when it came to the start of the W Series.
"I'm super lucky to have been able to do the Asian F3 championship because that's given me a good amount of racing already."
She added: "I just love racing and I enjoy doing the different disciplines. For me it's about being as versatile as possible.
"I enjoy doing that and going forward it's something that I'd like to maintain."
At this moment in time, none of us know what the future holds. And while some of us have been using lockdown to retrieve running shoes from the wardrobe or an old bike from the garage - Chadwick has something more ambitious in mind.
Something only a woman used to competing in a man's world would dare to tackle.
"Because I've been cycling and running quite a lot I'm toying with the idea of doing an iron man at the end of the year," she said before quickly adding: "Not the full one. A half iron man so it's only a half marathon as opposed to a full one.
"That's the other little goal I have to focus on this year."
Some little goal… Bike pump anyone?
