W Series: Chadwick Crowned Inaugural Champion

[Paul Jeffrey]

Jamie Chadwick secures the first ever W Series championship at Brands Hatch.

Having set off on her quest to become champion of the new all female W Series category in the best possible style at the Hockenheim season opener back in May, Jamie Chadwick has finally crossed the line to take the season trophy, taking two wins from five podiums in the seven round series - capping an impressive year that has seen the official Aston Martin junior driver catapult herself into the motorsports spotlight this season.

Ending the year on home soil at Brands Hatch, Chadwick would only manage to convert her Pole Position into a final fourth place finish at the chequred flag, but that would be enough to see the British youngster crowned the inaugural W Series champion by 10 points, from the Netherlands Beitske Visser. Fellow Brit Alice Powell would end her season on a high, securing her first win of the campaign at Brands Hatch on the way to wrapping up third overall in the championship standings.

With the W Series title now confirmed, and with it the cheque for $500,000, Chadwick is understandably delighted to bring home the silverware in what has been a solid first season for the new initiative.

“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" said the newly crowned title winner.​

“The whole W Series experience has been incredible. 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.”​

Chadwick remains the official development driver for the Williams F1 team, alongside her role as an Aston Martin junior in their GT programme, and is set to look at options to further her career in the weeks and months ahead.

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[pcraenme]

Watched a few of the races via the live Facebook stream and it was quite enjoyable to watch. This was a real drivers championship since they all had the same cars and also had to switch cars and teams to make things more even. Being Dutch I of course hoped Beitske would win the championship and I think she was a bit unlucky in the first and last race of the season, having car/engine troubles. She only came 10 points short for the championship though.

@Paul Jeffrey: It’s Beitske and not Beitsker.

 

[Terry Rock]

Congrats to Jamie Chadwick.
I absolutely enjoyed the few races I was able to watch.
I think the series was quite exciting ...and fun to watch.
Hopefully the number of races increases for the next one.

 

[Thang Nguyen]

Wow! Congrats to her!

 

[Jonny Austin]

I remain unsure about this series.I dont think we will see a F1 driver emerge from the series but I think we will see quite a few move on to race professionally in sports cars & more females might watch & decide to compete.

 

[Fat-Alfie]

I live in a household with my wife and two daughters (16 and 23) and none of them have shown any interest in watching this series. They are not interested in motorsport and don't see how having women driving the cars makes any difference

 

[RobertGracie]

This season, was just the starting point for W series, I have watched every round live on Channel 4 myself, I have not missed an event, this series is all about the drivers, its not about teams or team orders, they have made it as level as possible but also for the future of the sport well...

Timeline for Seasons 2 and 3:
2020 - W Series Season 2, Super Licence Points awarded, More Events coming
2021 - W Series Season 3, Going Global with the series

For me I am a supporter of the series myself, I have helped them out once or twice with a few technical things and from what I have seen of it, I have just found the driving quality to be second to none, they make it a point to share everything with the drivers to make sure its balanced across the field, but overall I have found the racing to be so much cleaner than anywhere else, just because none of the drivers are being paid oh....£50 million to drive a car and to win events.

As for the Reverse Grid race that was totally crazy, I mean they need to add that to the calendar to have different winners up and down the field and to make it a fight so the bottom of the grid gets a chance to score points its never nice to see drivers going away from a season on nul points..

As for 2022 I would like to see races on all 5 continents, so South America has some, Europe has a bunch (which is obvious and the season should end in the UK every year), Asia gets a few, and Oceania gets a couple as well, they do need to show these drivers off....

I hope Liberty Media looks at this series in a years time saying "Woah....we need this on the undercard event for Formula 1" and give them an undercard invite to say the British Grand Prix or something which would be a standout event for them

I better stop rambling now haha xD

 

[Dobermann92]

Oh thanks for reminding me, I almost forgot this series exists

 

[dave kirk]

Let's get Chadwick in an F1 car asap and prove the sexism and discrimination isn't what is holding women back in motorsport

 

[RichardHessels]

Let's get Chadwick in an F1 car asap and prove the sexism and discrimination isn't what is holding women back in motorsport

It's interest, i know very little females that like to watch car racing.

 

[DND]

I remain unsure about this series.I dont think we will see a F1 driver emerge from the series but I think we will see quite a few move on to race professionally in sports cars & more females might watch & decide to compete.

I think if this series can sustain for 5 years we should see the talent level improve enough to where some will seriously be considered. Lets be honest skill and effort are not unique to anyone.

 

[AlexBfromG]

the virtue signaling is always very strong in these threads.

 

[Stuntman Daz]

To me it seemed obvious from the start she was going to win. Easy money. I'd love to see her in F1 proper.

 

[Fat-Alfie]

How many races would $500,000 buy a seat for?

 

[falster]

the virtue signaling is always very strong in these threads.

yep, I said it before.

gets on my wick. the only reason this is getting talked about here or indeed anywhere is BECAUSE of the gender factor.

I don't give a toss personally about gender, race, sexuality etc, however, I do get annoyed when its the main thing that stuff is based around/focused on, when it shouldn't even be considered.

I personally don't know any females who give damn about this to be honest, and don't really see that its "empowering"

if theyre that good, then stick them in with the men....period. thats it.

however didn't work for Danica she was perpetually playing the victim card, and didn't have the strength of character, wont work for Hailie deagen for some reason everyone is obsessed about her, to cringeworthy thirsty levels to be honest, the girls only just turned 18 I think and isn't a particularly skilled driver, just gets away with stuff, shell get savaged in xfinity or cup or whatever

I noticed theres an all female gt team running somewhere...maybe imsa...cant remember...I don't see it working out. quite frankly and it seems more of a publicity stunt and a "two fingers up to the men" thing, which kind of tells me all I need to know

it always makes me laugh seeing "I hope they make it to f1" or "love to see them move up" etc....why?

if im honest, id like to see WHOMEVER is good enough for the job, doing it to be honest, whatever their gender or "self identifying" or whatever else crap without the need to flag wave and virtue signal


EDIT: I mean...its called "W" series FFS..... like as if every other racing series in the world has a Gender attached to its title and is saying NO GIRLZ ALLOWED!!!!

"a catalyst for change" "racings game changer"...… get bent

 

[AlexBfromG]

yep, I said it before.

gets on my wick. the only reason this is getting talked about here or indeed anywhere is BECAUSE of the gender factor.

I don't give a toss personally about gender, race, sexuality etc, however, I do get annoyed when its the main thing that stuff is based around/focused on, when it shouldn't even be considered.

I personally don't know any females who give damn about this to be honest, and don't really see that its "empowering"

if theyre that good, then stick them in with the men....period. thats it.

however didn't work for Danica she was perpetually playing the victim card, and didn't have the strength of character, wont work for Hailie deagen for some reason everyone is obsessed about her, to cringeworthy thirsty levels to be honest, the girls only just turned 18 I think and isn't a particularly skilled driver, just gets away with stuff, shell get savaged in xfinity or cup or whatever

I noticed theres an all female gt team tunning somewhere...maybe imsa...cant remember...I don't see it working out. quite frankly and it seems more of a publicity stunt and a "two fingers up to the men" thing, which kind of tells me all I need to know

it always makes me laugh seeing "I hope they make it to f1" or "love to see them move up" etc....why?

if im honest, id like to see WHOMEVER is good enough for the job, doing it to be honest, whatever their gender or "self identifying" or whatever else crap without the need to flag wave and virtue signal

yes, and it is going to be so much easier for a average female driver to get any sponsors compared to a better than average male driver, that would be the absolute marketing dream.

but women usually are not interested. and the men interested in motorsport are also not the feminist type in general.

 

[falster]

yes, and it is going to be so much easier for a average female driver to get any sponsors compared to a better than average male driver, that would be the absolute marketing dream.

but women usually are not interested. and the men interested in motorsport are also not the feminist type in general.

yeah "male feminists" I tend to avoid, as theres always something fishy about them, or they have some sort of skeleton in their closet, or theyre just trying to get laid.

the moment a male says something along those lines to me, I know immediately we wont be friends, but theyre usually at least 15 years younger than me with a top knot, tiny arms, jeans like leggings and a bit of a fear of washing

 

[DND]

How many races would $500,000 buy a seat for?

Not much past a test session or two I would imagine.

 

[galefoce97]

Let's get Chadwick in an F1 car asap and prove the sexism and discrimination isn't what is holding women back in motorsport

As good as Chadwick is she isn't ready for F1 yet. Very few drivers are ever ready at this point in their career. She needs to move on to F3 next if she can get a seat. Get some more experience. Maybe a couple years from now we'll see her in the picture for an F1 seat but bringing her up this early would only hurt her career.

 

[BrunoBæ]

if theyre that good, then stick them in with the men....period. thats it.

There is probably a reason that none of todays (admitted rather few) established female drivers could dream of joining this exclusive female series.
Probably because the last thing they want to be associated with is playing the victims card.
Hehe and I think it was the danish IMSA Driver Christina Nielsen who (with a hint) admitted that its actually not so hard to get sponsership for a female driver.
At least if you have shown that you are serious in what you are doing.

But what makes me sad in this context is one female F1 driver who really could have used a little positive support when she was still alive.
Because italian Lella Lombardi was a much better driver than she was allowed to show - because she was a woman!
The March team she was driving for (1974–1976) refused to pay attention to her creative ideas of how to setup the car - mainly because their oppinion was that she was not skilled in this area (as a woman - ofcourse).

It was first afterwards when she was fighting with cancer that some from the team admitted this.
Too late ofcourse - for Lombardi.
So if we compare the 70ties with now then the pendulum has more or less obviously ‎swung to the opposite side conserning female racing drivers.

Lombardi: first and only woman to score points in the F1 championship.