Chadwick eases to inaugural W Series Championship title

Jamie Chadwick sealed victory in the inaugural W Series Championship on Sunday after finishing fourth in the series finale at Brands Hatch.

Following on from victories at Hockenheim and Misano and podiums in all of the other rounds, fourth was all Chadwick needed to be crowned champion regardless of where her rivals finished, in particular Beitske Visser. But Visser could only manage to finish third behind Alice Powell, who took her first victory, and Finnish driver Emma Kimilainen.

It meant that Chadwick, who had started the race from pole before being passed by Powell, Kimilainen and Visser, won the title by 10 points from Visser.

“To be the inaugural W Series champion is simply unbelievable. It’ll sink in soon I’m sure, but it hasn’t yet,” said Chadwick on the official W Series website. “This year has been a whirlwind, and today’s race was more intense than any other racing day I’ve ever had. Even though I finished only fourth, I was just so happy finally to cross the line and secure the championship.”

In winning the first ever all-women’s championship, Chadwick netted $500,000 in prize money but there is surely a bigger end goal for arguably the most talented female driver in motorsport.

Chadwick is the current development driver for the Williams Formula One team and has also impressed during testing for the NIO Formula E team. She has made no secret of the fact that a race seat in F1 would be the ultimate goal.

“The whole W Series experience has been incredible,” added Chadwick. “At the beginning of the year I thought it just might be a great season. I suspected that W Series had the potential to be something big, but I never expected it to be this big. Obviously, each race has got bigger and better but coming here to Brands Hatch, my home circuit, well, I’ve simply never experienced anything like it.

“I’ve never felt attention from the spectators as much as I did today, and that really is a credit to W Series. It’s been an incredible opportunity for all of us, and the things I’ve been able to go on to do alongside W Series have made it by far the best year of my career so far.”

Fraser Masefield

Sports news and features writer, web editor and author.