How Chadwick's u-turn poses big questions for W Series

"I don't think it would make sense for me to return to W Series," Jamie Chadwick told Autosport in November.

Just three months later, the Williams Formula 1 development driver has announced she'll be coming back to the centrally-run championship to defend her title for a second time and will take up a slot on the grid with a 'team' endorsed by Olympic champion Caitlyn Jenner.

Chadwick's return is something of a disappointment - and not only to this writer. A driver who has done a brilliant job at showcasing both her own prowess and demonstrating the need for such a series, surely deserves a seat in FIA Formula 3, at the very least. What more can Chadwick do to prove herself worthy?

In any other championship, the winner would either be unable to return (see F1’s feeder series) or have no incentive to return and a logical path into their next seat in place (assuming the finances were sorted). Once links with a team had been forged, ordinarily the driver in question would look to take the step up to the next rung of the ladder in the same familiar environment, or with a rival team that they had impressed.

W Series 2021 runner-up Alice Powell seems to concur, writing on Twitter in response to a post about champions not returning to series on the junior ladder: “I agree, champions should move on. Same applies in F3 and F2.”

PLUS: How W Series' 2021 standout star took the challenge to its champion 

Part of the problem though is that W Series doesn't have conventional teams that could easily take Chadwick onto the next category. Even if her record speaks for itself - a double champion, with six W Series race wins, she has more than earned a seat further up the single-seater pyramid - that doesn't appear to be enough for Chadwick. Despite proving herself a dominant force in the series in 2019 and 2021, she is returning for a third bite at the cherry having been unable to secure a desirable seat higher up the racing ladder with the $1m prize pot earned from her two titles.

Chadwick has nothing more to prove after winning two W Series title, but will return for a third season in 2022

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

And yet, for the time being, Chadwick finds herself in the same position she was at the beginning of last year. Autosport has reached out to Chadwick's management team for comment, and understands that her full race programme is yet to be announced.

Of course, racing in W Series for Chadwick is better than not racing at all - she won't be repeating her 2021 dual programme of W Series and the off-road Extreme E championship for electric SUVs, which held its first round of 2022 last weekend. But reverting to a series she's won twice before appears to be symptomatic of a bigger problem facing W Series and women in motorsport more generally.

W Series CEO Catherine Bond Muir agrees, and says there are “systemic problems in motorsport for women.” Speaking to Autosport after Chadwick's surprise return was announced, she said that W Series predicted some of the negative comments about her coming back.

"She realises that she needs to race as much as possible. So if she doesn't get an F2 or an F3 seat this year, she's got to carry on racing, and that's the most important thing of all" Catherine Bond Muir

“She's said very clearly that she wants to go into F3 and F2, but this year it wasn't possible for her,” Bond Muir stated. “What she wants to do is stay in a racing car. So she'll be doing W Series, and hopefully other stuff, too.

“Motorsport is really hard for everyone. You need huge amounts of money to succeed in motorsport, however you get that money and people get it from lots of different ways. You have that basic issue with single seaters, the single-seater pyramid. And then you have the fact that you're a woman, which I think adds another layer of difficulty to it. It's a really tough old world and Jamie, I think, is demonstrating that it is not easy to get these seats.

“She’s got her eye on being a successful motor racing driver. And she realises that she needs to race as much as possible. So if she doesn't get an F2 or an F3 seat this year, she's got to carry on racing, and that's the most important thing of all.”

There are drivers competing in F3 this year who, at least judging by their past records, would appear less qualified for a seat than Chadwick. Granted, she admitted herself that top F3 seats “get taken so quickly” and that missing the post-season tests at Valencia didn’t help her case. The lack of W Series track time on F1 weekends would also put her on a back foot compared to those graduating from other series.

W Series boss Bond Muir has defended Chadwick's decision to return

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

But the 23-year-old's determination to become the first woman to race in F1 since Lella Lombardi in 1976 remains undiminished. In a video clip accompanying the announcement, Chadwick said that she is still determined to move up the ladder in 2023.

“I want to continue that progression,” she said. “My ultimate goal is still very much Formula 1 but to get there I believe in the process and I believe that W Series is the right way.

“For 2022, obviously I want to win the title again, but alongside that I think it’s going to be a massive development year for me. The focus for me long-term is obviously to break into F3 or F2, so I need to get the right development in place, the right tests and the right opportunities around W Series to be able to make that step up. Hopefully it’ll be possible at the end of the year.”

While the fact W Series is a free-to-enter championship must prove a draw to Chadwick, better experience could perhaps be gained in 2022 by making a move into sportscars - as former W Series rival-turned DTM racer Esmee Hawkey has done.

And that route may still be open to Chadwick, who tested with the Richard Mille Racing LMP2 team in Bahrain last year. Afterwards, she professed to have “really enjoyed” the experience, adding that “if I can and things allow that, I’d love to get involved in at some point in the future”. It would also be a logical step given her background too, as the British GT4 champion (with Ross Gunn) back in 2015, who has already made two appearances in the Nurburgring 24 Hours with Aston Martin.

Given Chadwick also said in November that a move elsewhere was necessary to “showcase [the series] as a leg-up and a platform for further opportunities,” her U-turn does raise questions about W Series' long-term future .

One of W Series’ aims is to help women progress to the upper tiers of motorsport. But if its double champion, who has finished on the podium in 12 of her 14 starts in the series, has been unable to find a seat higher up the pyramid for this year, what hope do its other drivers have getting into F3?

Would Chadwick benefit more from a season in sportscars than W Series, following the trend set by Hawkey?

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

Although its two Academy drivers, Nerea Marti and Irina Sidorkova, took part in an F3 test at Magny-Cours in November, it doesn’t bode well for the likes of Powell's protege Abbi Pulling, set to take part in her first full season of W Series this year having been forced out of British F4 in 2021 because of budget issues.

The other problem caused by Chadwick’s return is that on a grid of 18 drivers, she is taking a seat which could be given to an unproven young female attempting to make their first step into single seaters. When so many women are trying to break into motorsport, a two-time champion who has nothing more to prove in the series occupying a drive which could be put to better use by a rookie seems somewhat counterintuitive.

"We cannot be paying for our drivers after they leave W Series because frankly, it's expensive enough doing what we're doing too. We can't be the cradle for all women in motorsport for everything that they want to do" Catherine Bond Muir

W Series’ high profile on the F1 support card, with live free-to-air broadcasts on Channel 4 in the UK, and an eight-race calendar that this year includes its first Asian round will surely succeed in its core mission of encouraging young women into motorsport. But there needs to be somewhere for its drivers to go after W Series – and Chadwick's move proves that is a problem.

Formula Regional European by Alpine is on a similar footing to W Series in terms of machinery and standing within the single-seater pyramid. Yet in stark contrast to Chadwick's situation, the 2021 FRECA 2021 champion Gregoire Saucy will start 2022 driving in F3 for ART Grand Prix.

PLUS: How an outsider demolished a rank of F1 juniors

The solution to the problem inevitably lies in part further up the single-seater pyramid, and while F2 and F3 boss Bruno Michel previously said there had been discussions to help W Series’ champions into those series, they have yet to come to fruition. Bond Muir says those discussions are ongoing, but adds that as ever, money is the problem.

“I think we will certainly carry on speaking to Bruno, but again, you know, it is the money,” she said. “We cannot be paying for our drivers after they leave W Series because frankly, it's expensive enough doing what we're doing too.

“We can't be the cradle for all women in motorsport for everything that they want to do. We are W Series, we look after W series, but hopefully, the more that we grow, the more that people will look on our drivers favourably, and the more money will go into our drivers so they can go on into other areas.”

FRECA champion Saucy will step up to FIA F3 with ART

Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd

She believes the solution lies in more support for women in motorsport across the board, and says the “harsh reality” comes in the form of more financial backing: “Whilst the women don't get the sponsorship and the financial support that the men get, this cycle that we've had for the last 45 years of no woman being in Formula 1, that's all going to continue.

“It is not for me, certainly, to deny Jamie a seat. We are a championship that will be open to the best drivers who apply, because it is all about being the best driver. So, that's not for me, it is for Jamie's team and the rest of motorsport to figure out whether they want to support her and other women too.”

Essentially, it comes down to W Series’ champions being given opportunities on the conventional single-seater ladder. Chadwick's announcement seems to prove that this isn’t going to be the case – at least for now.

Bond Muir believes Chadwick is stuck between a rock and a hard place

Photo by: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Images