Three-times W Series champion Jamie Chadwick will make the next step in her car racing career in 2023 by stepping up into Indy Nxt with Andretti Autosport.
The championship, previously known as Indy Lights, is IndyCar’s primary feeder series and supports it at 11 events on street circuits, road courses and ovals.Chadwick, currently a junior driver of the Williams Formula 1 team, has never raced single-seaters at a level higher than Formula Regional, meaning she will be skipping Formula 3 in her move up to the secondary tier of open-wheel racing.
“I’m really happy to be stepping up into Indy Nxt next year,” said Chadwick. “It’s a great opportunity for me to be able to get a lot of seat time and continue my development.
“Racing for a team like Andretti is going to be an amazing experience and I’m really looking forward to racing in the United States. A massive thank you to Williams for the support they’ve given me on my journey since joining the academy in 2019.
Chadwick started her car racing career in sportscars, racing in Ginetta Junior and becoming British GT4 champion.
She moved into single-seaters via BRDC British F3, winning one race in two seasons, then won the MRF Challenge series at the start of 2019.
W Series was created that year and Chadwick won the inaugural title in the series for Formula Regional chassis, before repeating the feat in 2021 and ’22.
She also raced in the FIA’s Asian and European championships for Formula Regional cars, making the podium five times across the two series, and last year ventured into off-road racing in Extreme E.
“Andretti Autosport is proud to be supporting Jamie alongside DHL for the 2023 Indy Nxt season,” said the team’s CEO Michael Andretti.
“Jamie’s successful career speaks for itself, but the Indy Nxt series gives Jamie the opportunity to continue her development in a new type of racing.
“We’ve turned out five Indy Nxt champions over the years and look forward to continuing our role in developing new talent.
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Nitin Patel (@nitin24)
1st December 2022, 15:24
This is great news! It will be a great challenge for Jamie, and it will be quite popular having a female competing in IndyCar NXT!
theRealMax (@millionus)
2nd December 2022, 7:46
Wish her well, she seems fast and has a good temperament to go far. I wonder what success looks like for her, does she need podiums or is anything less than a win expected?
Dane
1st December 2022, 16:00
I wish her the best. It would be great to see Jamie in IndyCar, she’s one of the best lady drivers in the world for sure.
Rick Worth (@cumbrian)
1st December 2022, 17:13
Would be nice to get Katherine Legge in to mentor her.
BasCB (@bascb)
1st December 2022, 18:24
I really hope she can break through and prove herself in the field.
ajpennypacker (@ajpennypacker)
1st December 2022, 20:17
Good for her, it’s time to show whether she’s the real deal. It’s the first time she gets a very strong team in a strong category. There are no excuses here and I wish her the absolute best. She’s the only woman I believe has potential to make an impact
Grateful Med
2nd December 2022, 8:00
18 year-old Doriane Pin is another female driver who seems to possess the talent to make male-dominated racing categories take notice.
https://www.ferrari.com/en-EN/corse-clienti/drivers/doriane-pin
Gavin Campbell
2nd December 2022, 13:51
Other than in 2020 when she raced the Formula Regional Euro F3 season for Prema where her teamates finished 1,2 and 3 in the Championship each taking multiple wins and podiums while Chadwick finished 9th with a single podium. Those teamates were all rookies (Gianluca Petecof, Arthur Leclerc & Oliver Rasmussen) and the field also included Dennis Hauger and Juri Vips (who did partial seasons and outscored her).
Shes been the class of W Series and I’m looking forward to see how she goes Stateside but what you said isn’t true at all.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
1st December 2022, 20:46
I hope she does well. That would raise the credibility of the W Series.
Dick Dawson
1st December 2022, 22:01
Go Go Go! Kick some ass Jaime and show em all what you got!
Sham (@sham)
1st December 2022, 22:07
She has the talent, now it’s time to see if she can race with a field of hungry young drivers.
I believe that she can, and I’ll be following her progress very closely.
M
2nd December 2022, 5:53
Is it part of Andretti’s push for a place in F1? Flying the flag.
Not a choice I would expect such a team to make if selecting the best option.
Gavin Campbell
2nd December 2022, 13:58
I mean she’s been the most high profile female driver over the last couple of years, probably has some sponsorship behind her. It probably makes as much sense to take the best and highest profile female driver when you’ve already got the IndyPro 2000(level below NXT for avoidance of doubt) Champion signed alongside a returning driver of placed well last season.
It’s quite a big field for the first NXT series (18 drivers) and Indycar has had decent sucess taking drivers from the European ladders and converting them so I think it adds up to be a pretty solid choice regardless of the F1 link.
Chris Horton
2nd December 2022, 8:58
Happy for her, disappointed for us. A massive open goal missed for european single seater motorsport.