Jamie Chadwick has admitted she is unsure if female drivers could handle the physical demands of racing in a Formula 1 car.
Almost 50 years on from the last time a woman raced in F1, and eight years since Susie Wolff took part in a practice session, there is currently a big drive to get a female driver into the sport again. The creation of the W Series is part of that push, while this week Alpine launched their own initiative to create their own path.
Chadwick may one day be the woman who secures a place on the F1 grid, having dominated W Series – she is currently on the hunt for her third consecutive title. But the Brit has admitted that she is not certain that female bodies are capable of handling the stresses placed upon it by F1 cars.
"I have set myself a goal of competing in Formula 1 but I don’t know what is actually possible," Chadwick told the Press Association. "To get into Formula 1 you have to go through the feeder series – F3 and F2 – and it is extremely physical. Formula 1 is extremely physical, and we don't know exactly what women are capable of in the sport.
"If you are aged 15 or 16, and go into car racing, without power steering and driving big heavy cars, a lot of women do struggle, even though they have been successful in go-karting. We like to think that women can make it – and I am happy to be the guinea pig and will do my best to push and explore the options to Formula 1 – but we don't know.
"There hasn't been a woman in the recent era that has done it. I am trying to understand whether that is to do with the physical side of it. If it is physically possible, and women can compete against men, how do we make that happen? However, if it is physically too hard, but the sport wants women to compete, than we have got to bring it back and understand why."
The Williams development driver continued by suggesting the sport would need to make technical rule changes to accommodate female drivers. Chadwick added: "I don't think it is just as straightforward as getting stronger in the gym and jumping in the car. Although our sport is incredibly advanced with a lot of things, the physical human performance side is misunderstood.
"In F2 and F3, the steering wheels are all identical and they have a thick grip. How can we make them thinner because women's hands are not necessarily that big? How can we make sure there are no restrictions on how close the pedals are so you can get the right leverage?
"And some of the newer tubs in the cockpit are really narrow. Women with bigger hips can't fit into them comfortably. A lot of these things have been overlooked for obvious reasons but now we need to see whether that does make a difference to performance."
