The Brit following in George Russell’s footsteps in the fast lane

Jamie Chadwick, like the rest of the country, is thrilled about George Russell’s move to Mercedes — but she has more reason to celebrate than most.

Russell, whose promotion to join Lewis Hamilton at F1’s defending seven-time Constructors’ Champions was announced on Tuesday, first drove for Mercedes’ technical partners Williams at the Australian Grand Prix in March 2019. Two months later, future W Series champion Chadwick signed on as a development driver.

The dovetailing doesn’t stop there. Russell’s sister is the W Series’ former driver liaison, and both British drivers - Chadwick is from Bath, Russell from Norfolk - are just 23, looking at what seems like world of opportunity lying ahead.

“I’m just so happy for him,” said Chadwick. “It feels a little bit overdue, of course. We all know, especially being at Williams, what a talent he is.

“But to finally get the news out there, we’re all just so excited about it, and I think as a British young driver seeing it as well, I think it’s just ultra-special to see Lewis Hamilton and George as teammates in one of the top teams next year.”

Meanwhile, Chadwick has a British battle of her own to contend with in the W Series. The defending champion is tied with Oxford’s Alice Powell with 109 points and just two races left, with the season coming down to the W Series’ first two races outside of Europe: USA’s Circuit of the Americas on 23 October and Mexico City’s Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez the following week, both part of the W Series’ new partnership with F1.

Viewing figures for the second season are impressive, with 600,000 people tuning in to watch the race at Silverstone in July.

Compare that to the headline-grabbing, record shattering 800,000 believed to have tuned in to watch Manchester City in the 11-year-old Women’s Super League this weekend, part of the new BBC and Sky Sports £24 million megadeal, and the two-year-old racing startup, with far less fanfare, seems to be doing something very right.

“Those figures definitely surprised me,” said Chadwick. “Motorsport is still a fairly niche sport for sporting fans. You’ve got your motorsport fans, but not that many people that just love sport watch F1.

“So it’s fantastic to see we’re starting to see a whole new audience come into play.”

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Until Austin, Chadwick will turn her attention to Williams, starting with this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza. While Russell and team-mate Nicholas Latifi are at the track, Chadwick will be doing correlation work on the simulator, offering her comments and feedback to the race team.

She said: “The amount I’m able to learn as a young driver and be part of a Formula 1 team, and to be able to understand what it takes to be a Formula 1 driver has been super useful, and has massively helped me and all the racing I’ve done alongside it.”

That includes both the W Series and Extreme E, the new electric competition aiming to highlight climate change by staging races on remote corners of the planet. Teams must have one female and one male driver, with Chadwick partnering two-time Le Mans Series winner Stephane Sarrazin to form Veloce Racing’s entry.

It’s not lost on Chadwick, arguably the most recognisable face of the W Series, that she’s become a bit of a development driver for entire series formats – a guinea pig at the gearbox.

“I’m making a habit of it!” she joked. “It’s been a long time coming for these radical changes to happen.

“With W Series and Extreme E both improving our sport, but also things that stand for bigger reasons than that, with the gender equality argument and the climate change awareness.

“I think it’s exciting we can stand for a lot more. And from a racing point of view, it’s fantastic as well.”