Jamie Chadwick celebrates her results after recently completing her first rookie season with Andretti Autosport this year in the IndyNXT series, a step in the Road to Indy program. The end goal is to reach the IndyCar series, a series that is the highest class of regional North American open-wheel racing in the United States.
After a challenging and brutal year, the British racer, a 3 time W series champion and development driver for the F1 team Williams Racing, has made progress in the individual races, securing four top-ten finishes in the last 5 races of the season to finish her rookie season on a positive note. At the beginning of 2023, Jamie decided to transition to the IndyNXT series, fuelled by her passion for racing, and to embark on a new adventure. Her first year has been incredibly demanding, as she navigated challenges such as the physical fitness and strength required to operate the car. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Jamie stated that she grew more comfortable with the car as she gained more confidence and track time during the season, initially worried that she would not be able to finish the race.
"Every race at the beginning of the year, the first five or six races, I’d get halfway through and I would panic that I wasn’t gonna make the end. Now it doesn’t feel like that at all. So I’m really happy with how much more comfortable I am, but [it] definitely was a step that I wasn’t expecting to be so big.”
Faced with numerous hurdles, Chadwick has proven her determination to learn time and time again, enjoying the fast-paced experience of IndyNXT this year. Having been a driver on the W Series last year, the shift in intensity has been extreme, as she finds herself pushed to her limits at every single lap, due to the aggressive nature of the race. She mentioned in her interview with Top Gear that she enjoys the ‘brutal’ nature of IndyNXT, as it has meant that Chadwick has had to move away from the “smoothness and the pinpoint accuracy” that she’s used to, to an almost “off-road, rally” style of driving. “There’s something that’s been fun about that,” she says. “But understanding that limit and how to get the most out of the car is taking a bit of time.”
The car she currently drives on the grid, a Dallara-built, open-wheel car weighing less than 650kg and powered by a 2-litre V8 engine, is a big step up from the Tatuus F3 car that pushed her to win 3 W series championships. The car is also different in the aspect of sizing, as her car is more developed towards the physical characteristics of men, contrasting to Formula 1 for example, where each driver’s car is individually customized to their comfort and size. However, it is a vital step to push her driving career forward, as IndyNXT is to IndyCar like Formula 2 to Formula 1. Therefore, this step up will enable Jamie to be able to drive faster, heavier cars with powerful engines that will demand extreme physical strength and mental resilience as she moves up the rankings.
“It’s quite a brutal car. To drive it properly you have to wring its neck. You really have to just drive it to the absolute limit.”
This applies to the oval tracks as well, as the British driver describes her first ever experience at the Iowa Speedway as a milestone, but a daunting one at that, as she had never run into traffic before that race. She relished the experience according to an interview with Top Gear stating that it was very fun for her.
“It only looks like two corners, and they’re pretty much flat out both ends, but the way you have to feel the balance of the car is very different,” she explains to an interviewer from Top Gear. “And then the racing’s a whole different ball game.”
“You never really slow down, you’re just constantly at speed. The race wasn’t even that long, but you’re just battling constantly.” “It was fun!”
Jamie currently is following in the footsteps of the female British IndyCar racer, Pippa Mann, who also moved from Europe to the United States and gained her big break into IndyCar through the same series, then called ‘Indy Lights’. In another interview that Top Gear conducted with Mann, she hopes that Jamie will be able to ‘find her feet in her second year of the season’, as Jamie confirms that she will be committing to a second year in the IndyNXT series. “Having that opportunity to learn a lot of the tracks and a lot of the unknowns this year to then go into next year with a lot more experience under my belt I think is very useful,” she says. “We only have two ovals on the calendar, so to have a second year of that before even looking at something like IndyCar - which has a lot more going on in that sense - would be important.”
So far, Chadwick has shown promise that she will be able to progress in the series, as she secured P6 at Portland International Speedway in the first week of September. She hopes to someday race in Le Mans, Daytona, or the Nurburgring, broadening her scope beyond just driving single-seater cars. As she progresses further in her career, the hope is that she will be able to qualify for IndyCar in the future, focusing on physical performance now that she has had lots of track time and gained useful experience and insight that can assist her in the next season. She feels motivated to push herself next year, believing that opportunities lie on the horizon, as individuals like Pippa Mann have also progressed to the IndyCar series.
“But what’s nice from my perspective is I’ve seen the likes of Pippa progress from the Indy Lights championship to IndyCar. So I see it as a clear opportunity if I can perform. And the focus now is fully on performance for next year to try and justify that.”
An encouraging first year for Jamie Chadwick hopefully promises improvement in her second year of racing in the IndyNXT series, as she continues to navigate through next year’s season, having a better understanding of the racing environment and what she needs to do to maximize her chances of securing more top tens, potentially a podium should she continue for a third season of IndyNXT. Ultimately, she continues to push herself, acting as an inspiration for many girls today including myself, as she overcomes challenges with great determination and resilience, continuing to do so within her racing career and beyond.
Citations:
[1] "Jamie Chadwick Loving “brutal” Indy NXT Series." Top Gear, 1 Aug. 2023, www.topgear.com/car-news/interview/jamie-chadwick-loving-brutal-indy-nxt-series Accessed 15 Sept. 2023.
[2] FAIRMAN, KATY. "Si.com." Si.com (Sports Illustrated), 14 Sept. 2023, www.si.com/formula1/2023/09/14/jamie-chadwick-pushing-toward-f1-indy-nxt-women-motorsports. Accessed 15 Sept. 2023.
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