Jamie Chadwick lauds 'fantastic' F1 Academy as new-look Williams relationship explained

Three-time W Series champion and Andretti Indy NXT star Jamie Chadwick has described Susie Wolff’s work with F1 Academy as ‘fantastic’ following a successful start to the series’ sophomore campaign.

Wolff spearheaded the launch of the series in 2023, building on the strong foundational work of W Series and offering young female drivers another route into the feeder series ladder. Since then, it has come on leaps and bounds, with all 10 F1 teams backing at least one driver, and feeder series giants such as PREMA Racing and MP Motorsport on board.

“I think it’s great,” Chadwick told Express Sport. “I think it’s similar to what we saw with W Series. It’s just creating opportunity and visibility and helping bridge that experience gap that we’ve currently got around the Formula Four level.

“But I think with Susie and Formula One coming into the F1 Academy, I think it’s fantastic because they’ve got the backing of Formula One teams… a lot of the drivers, they’ve got the support of top-level feeder series, Formula Two, Formula Three teams.

“And I think just that alone is going to massively help these girls progress and make that transition to the next step a lot easier for them.”

Chadwick herself is working closely with one of the 15 drivers on the F1 Academy grid. Through her relationship with Williams, the Bath-born racer is helping Lia Block through her rookie campaign in the championship and her transition from rally cars into single-seaters.

Discussing the state of her partnership with Williams, Chadwick explained: “So the relationship now is a little bit more based around having a role with Lia Block, who is their F1 Academy driver.

“And that’s really cool for me because it’s kind of like a full circle moment, helping her. I’ve obviously got some experience from W Series, F1 Academy, kind of the evolution on that and helping support them whilst bringing her along where possible.”

Away from her developmental work with Williams, Chadwick has enjoyed plenty of recent success herself. Building on from a mixed rookie campaign in Indy NXT, the Andretti Global driver scored a historic maiden podium at the Indy Road Course after taking a clear step forward in terms of pace over the winter.

“A bit mixed,” Chadwick responded when asked for an assessment of her year to date. “On the one side, happy with the speed we’ve had and the progress we’ve made, particularly from last year. We’ve generally been fighting in the top five in every race, which when you look at where we were last year is a really good start.

“But on the flip side of that, a bit disappointed we’ve not been able to convert many of those into meaningful results. So yeah, the podium at the weekend in Indianapolis was really nice… I kind of felt like a tonne of… validated and took a bit of weight off [my shoulders], getting that one, but also keen to be pushing for more results and higher finishes for the rest of the year now.”