32 laps, one landmark test
Jamie Chadwick drove a Formula 1 car for the first time on Monday, completing 32 laps at Portimao in a 2025-specification Williams under the sport’s Testing of Previous Cars rules. The 28-year-old already carries plenty of history in motorsport. She won all three seasons of the W Series, then became the first woman to win a road course race in the US-based Indy NXT series back in 2024.
Chadwick works as a Williams ambassador and a Sky Sports F1 pundit, roles that keep her close to the sport without a seat in it. Monday’s test changed that, if only for a day. “Few things can prepare you for driving a Formula 1 car at speed around a track like Portimao, but it was everything I imagined and 10 times more,” she said afterward.
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Second woman to test an F1 car this year
Chadwick becomes the second woman to drive a current-generation F1 car in 2026, after F1 Academy champion Doriane Pin took a 2021 Mercedes around Silverstone in April. She is also the first British woman to test an F1 car since Jessica Hawkins drove an Aston Martin in 2023, a three-year gap that shows how rare these opportunities remain even as the sport pushes to widen its talent pool.
A message for the next generation
Williams team principal James Vowles framed the test as more than a one-off. “Jamie Chadwick is an inspiration for millions of women and girls who has broken records at every level, and she has thoroughly earned this F1 test opportunity,” he said. Chadwick, who joined Williams as a development driver back in 2019, pointed to the same goal. “I’d love to be able to do the same for the next generation, and the experience I gained today will make a real difference both to my own racing and to what I can pass on to the drivers coming through,” she said. For now, she remains focused on the European Le Mans Series, with no full-time F1 seat on the table.
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