Jamie Chadwick - First competitive female driver in F1?

[Yazza54]

I wish her the best of luck but has been said before she is not and never will be F1 material unless she can buy her way in, and I don't think she can.

If she wasn't a she, we wouldn't even be talking about her. That's the reality of the situation. She's one of thousands of decent but not amazing pro racing drivers and she's already had more help and exposure than a lot of those others will ever get.

[Sandpit Steve]

carl_w said:

DocJock said:

Yuki is 1.59m, which equates to 5' 2.5"

Danica is 5' 1.5" (1.56m) according to Wikipedia

Danica’s a tiny little thing, she must have done some serious work in the gym when she was driving.

Karun Chandok and Ant Davidson are also both quite short, 5’6’ish but they look like giants when on screen with Danica. At one of the recent F1 races, Sky had Danica, 6’ Jenson Button, and Rachel Brookes (wearing heels), as the three presenters, with the tiny American in the middle and further from the camera. Yes, it looked silly.

IIRC Jamie was pretty small among the W Series drivers, and Yuki definitely looks more like a jockey than a driver.

When they announced the new F2 car the other week, they made specific reference to an FIA programme to ensure the cars are able to be driven by ‘people of all shapes and sizes’. The old F2 had no power steering, and was a physically demanding pig to drive compared to F1 and F3 cars.

[TheDeuce]

StevieBee said:

Geneve said:

gt_12345 said:

She's not in the top 20 drivers in the world so why should she be in F1?

Diverting off topic slightly, I’ve always queried whether the F1 grid really does represent the top drivers in the world.

Interesting point. 10 years ago I would have said not. But I think this is changing. The teams are in a far better position financially than they have ever been and so are less reliant upon drivers with budgets and thus better placed to hire drivers with skills. I don't think we'll see the like of Mazapin in F1 again.

The paradox is that this may well work against Chadwick. The commercial value of her getting a F1 seat would be significant and in the past, to a level that may well have attracted a struggling team. Not so much the case now.

The science of identifying the drivers with the highest potential has no doubt increased.

But the best (in terms of unrealised potential) several hundred drivers in the world most likely never stepped into a kart.

Regardless, the grid we have are pretty much the best of the best that decided to try a career as a racer. Plus Lance.

Chadwick tried and isn't in the top 20

[skwdenyer]

TheDeuce said:

The science of identifying the drivers with the highest potential has no doubt increased.

But the best (in terms of unrealised potential) several hundred drivers in the world most likely never stepped into a kart.

Regardless, the grid we have are pretty much the best of the best that decided to try a career as a racer. Plus Lance.

Chadwick tried and isn't in the top 20

The best to have had the support (in all forms) to make it through karting and lower formulae? Maybe. But the ease with which you skim over the barriers even to getting a season of karting is quite notable.

[anonymous-user]

TheDeuce said:

Chadwick tried and isn't in the top 20

In the 2023 Indy NXT series she came last out of all the competitors who raced in all 14 rounds with a best result of one sixth. Lets be honest, there is no way that a female driver is ever going to make it into F1. They tried to create a backdoor with the Formula W series, but ultimately what good is it letting women race against other women?

The inconvenient truth is you need 40 points to get an F1 Super licence. Much as people ridicule drivers such as Mazapin, Stroll and Latifi, all of them have done something that Ms Chadwick hasn't done and that is to do well enough in a championship to accumulate the required 40 points.

For a woman to get into Formula 1 she needs to do it the same, boring old way as ever other driver and make their way up the ranks. They need to race against men in Formula 3 and Formula 2 and do well enough in each to get the required 40 points.

Trying to get them into Formula 1 by attempting to bypass this important step is never even going to work. Even if by some miracle you did create enough women only formulas where they accumulated the points, they would get found out after about 5 minutes on the first testing day of the season.

To think that an F1 team is going to spend £140 million developing a car only to put Jamie Chadwick in it to tick box some woke agenda is absolutely laughable. If you though Mazapin and Latifi were out of their depth, Jamie Chadwick would make them look like future F1 champions.

Sophia Flörsch is another one, why do people keep going on about how well she is doing and improving when her sole points finish in the 2023 F3 season was one seventh.

Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 12th September 20:23

[Muzzer79]

Joey Deacon said:

In the 2023 Indy NXT series she came last out of all the competitors who raced in all 14 rounds with a best result of one sixth. Lets be honest, there is no way that a female driver is ever going to make it into F1. They tried to create a backdoor with the Formula W series, but ultimately what good is it letting women race against other women?

The inconvenient truth is you need 40 points to get an F1 Super licence. Much as people ridicule drivers such as Mazapin, Stroll and Latifi, all of them have done something that Ms Chadwick hasn't done and that is to do well enough in a championship to accumulate the required 40 points.

For a woman to get into Formula 1 she needs to do it the same, boring old way as ever other driver and make their way up the ranks. They need to race against men in Formula 3 and Formula 2 and do well enough in each to get the required 40 points.

Trying to get them into Formula 1 by attempting to bypass this important step is never even going to work. Even if by some miracle you did create enough women only formulas where they accumulated the points, they would get found out after about 5 minutes on the first testing day of the season.

To think that an F1 team is going to spend £140 million developing a car only to put Jamie Chadwick in it to tick box some woke agenda is absolutely laughable. If you though Mazapin and Latifi were out of their depth, Jamie Chadwick would make them look like future F1 champions.

Sophia Flörsch is another one, why do people keep going on about how well she is doing and improving when her sole points finish in the 2023 F3 season was one seventh.

Edited by Joey Deacon on Tuesday 12th September 20:23

Whilst I agree with you that Chadwick and Flörsch haven’t got what it takes and that it has to be done the same way as the men, I don’t agree that we can say right now that we’ll never get a female F1 driver.

They used to say that about rallying…..then Michele Mouton came along and she was the real deal.

It may only be once in a generation, it may be in 20 years time, they may not win races, but there will be a credible female F1 driver at some point.

[alisdairm]

Aston Martin: Jessica Hawkins becomes first woman to test F1 car since 2018

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/66921772

The former W Series racer, 28, alternated in the car with test and reserve driver Felipe Drugovich.

No mention of times to compare both driver.

[Sycamore]

alisdairm said:

No mention of times to compare both driver.

Probably because she's quicker than Stroll

[anonymous-user]

alisdairm said:

No mention of times to compare both driver.

Funny that. Wasn't it revealed that Carmen Jorda the Lotus test driver was 12 seconds a lap slower in the simulator?

[flatlandsman]

I do find it rather astonishing and a bit sad that Jamie had not even had a test run in a Wiliams despite being an employee and representative of that team.

I know she has driven old stuff in demos etc, but cmon, surely she deserves an hour at Jerez or Catalunya!!

[RacerMike]

Joey Deacon said:

alisdairm said:

No mention of times to compare both driver.

Funny that. Wasn't it revealed that Carmen Jorda the Lotus test driver was 12 seconds a lap slower in the simulator?

Lots of excuses in the press release too. 'Track was green', 'difficult conditions' etc. I'm always slightly confused the amount of opportunities she's had given the generally perceived attitude problem and her overall lack of experience. She didn't really excel in W Series and has had very little seat time elsewhere.

[thegreenhell]

Joey Deacon said:

alisdairm said:

No mention of times to compare both driver.

Funny that. Wasn't it revealed that Carmen Jorda the Lotus test driver was 12 seconds a lap slower in the simulator?

I don't think there's anything funny. Teams rarely ever publish times from private tests. Outside of official sessions you only get to hear anything at all if the team wants to put out a specific story.

[MustangGT]

alisdairm said:

Aston Martin: Jessica Hawkins becomes first woman to test F1 car since 2018

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/66921772

The former W Series racer, 28, alternated in the car with test and reserve driver Felipe Drugovich.

No mention of times to compare both driver.

If she is ex W series then she is probably slower than Jamie Chadwick.

[Bright Halo]

MustangGT said:

alisdairm said:

Aston Martin: Jessica Hawkins becomes first woman to test F1 car since 2018

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/66921772

The former W Series racer, 28, alternated in the car with test and reserve driver Felipe Drugovich.

No mention of times to compare both driver.

If she is ex W series then she is probably slower than Jamie Chadwick.

Yes she is and by some way. She came 9th and 11th twice in the W series where as Jamie won all 3 years.
Why on earth does she get a test drive ahead of Jamie? Something to do with money I would guess. Great to see a lady testing but at least put the best qualified lady in the test or it just becomes a publicity stunt.

[Muzzer79]

Bright Halo said:

MustangGT said:

alisdairm said:

Aston Martin: Jessica Hawkins becomes first woman to test F1 car since 2018

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/66921772

The former W Series racer, 28, alternated in the car with test and reserve driver Felipe Drugovich.

No mention of times to compare both driver.

If she is ex W series then she is probably slower than Jamie Chadwick.

Yes she is and by some way. She came 9th and 11th twice in the W series where as Jamie won all 3 years.
Why on earth does she get a test drive ahead of Jamie? Something to do with money I would guess. Great to see a lady testing but at least put the best qualified lady in the test or it just becomes a publicity stunt.

Not quite as simple as that, is it?

If an F1 team is running a test, do they automatically choose the 'best qualified' man? Of course not - so there's no reason why it should be different for women.

Jamie Chadwick doesn't (and shouldn't) have a relationship with every team as their 'go-to' woman.

[Peacockantony]

Bright Halo said:

Yes she is and by some way. She came 9th and 11th twice in the W series where as Jamie won all 3 years.
Why on earth does she get a test drive ahead of Jamie? Something to do with money I would guess. Great to see a lady testing but at least put the best qualified lady in the test or it just becomes a publicity stunt.

Because Aston needed something to detract away from their performances in the races worsening. Notice how the news about Aston's test is primarily focussing on their "Driver Ambassador" being in the car instead of Felipe Drugovich, despite him being the F2 champion. Hopefully this means Lance is out on his ass after this season.

The best qualified lady is part of the Alpine team, they aren't going to put her in the Aston ;p
Nor are they going to put Chadwick in either. Alpine & Williams could organise tests in their own cars if they want to, but they obviously see little value in putting a F3 driver or a Formula Regional driver in their cars...

[eps]

alisdairm said:

Aston Martin: Jessica Hawkins becomes first woman to test F1 car since 2018

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/66921772

The former W Series racer, 28, alternated in the car with test and reserve driver Felipe Drugovich.

No mention of times to compare both driver.

Which is great, but it was only 26 laps in total and a 2021 spec car. Of course that's probably the most recent specification available within the current rules.

https://amp.formula1.com/en/latest/article.hawkins...

ETA, times were representative or something, whatever that means!!

[Peacockantony]

Of course the times were 'representative or something', they are hardly going to come out and say she was slow...
Even though it's a given that she would be, since she lacks all of the preperation drivers get as they climb the feeder ladder

flatlandsman said:

I do find it rather astonishing and a bit sad that Jamie had not even had a test run in a Wiliams despite being an employee and representative of that team.

I know she has driven old stuff in demos etc, but cmon, surely she deserves an hour at Jerez or Catalunya!!

She is arguably the weakest of all of William's academy drivers, when you have O'Sullivan, Colapinto & Browning at your disposal, why would you give such an opportunity to a driver that finishes at the rear of low end grids and isn't up to the standard of their other drivers?

[Muzzer79]

flatlandsman said:

I do find it rather astonishing and a bit sad that Jamie had not even had a test run in a Wiliams despite being an employee and representative of that team.

I know she has driven old stuff in demos etc, but cmon, surely she deserves an hour at Jerez or Catalunya!!

Current spec F1 car? No chance

Testing is so limited now - it's race drivers and young drivers who are proper prospects for F1. Now that teams are financially viable, there's no need for publicity runs.

It's a shame really. Whilst I don't advocate a return to early-2000s style testing, teams should be able to run drivers physically in a car more often, outside of race weekends.

[flatlandsman]

My point being surely it would not be hard to have this so called figurehead of womens racing do what Hawkins did at a test and do a morning in an old car!

Just makes it look, sadly, like most of these appointments do, to advantage both parties PR wise, nothing more.