Chadwick takes grassroots approach to boost female participation

LONDON : The second season of the all-female F1 Academy starts in Saudi Arabia this week but Jamie Chadwick, Britain's top woman racer, recognises there is a long way to go before Formula One's male monopoly ends.

A triple champion in the defunct W Series, and now racing in America, Chadwick agrees with Williams boss James Vowles that it will be years before a female driver appears on a grand prix starting grid.

Moves to boost female participation in motorsport are picking up pace but it has been nearly half a century since Italian Lella Lombardi started a grand prix in 1976.

"I think he’s right," Chadwick, 25, told Reuters when reminded of Vowles' comments last year that the breakthrough would happen but not soon.

"I think what we’re doing is growing the amount of participation and that’s increasing the talent pool," she added at a karting event for girls at Whilton Mill north of Silverstone.

"Naturally that’s just going to increase the odds of female drivers filtering through to the top, but what we are lacking now is performance at the feeder series level.

"We’ve not really seen that many women (competing) at F2 level or F3 level."

Chadwick is part of the Williams Driver Academy and is mentoring 17-year-old American Lia Block, daughter of the late rally driver Ken, in F1 Academy where she will race an F4 car with the ART team.

The Briton will not be in Jeddah as she is racing for Andretti Global in IndyCar's Indy NXT feeder series season opener in Florida on Sunday.

GRASSROOTS

In the meantime, Chadwick is getting back to grassroots.

On Friday, International Women's Day, Britain's three Daytona Motorsport kart tracks will offer 'females race for free" access with the possibility of competing in a 'Jamie Chadwick Series' with