No woman has started a Formula 1 grand prix since Lella Lombardi reached the chequered flag 12th in the Austrian Grand Prix on 15 August 1976. Fifty years on, Jamie Chadwick got as close as anyone has come at Williams in more than a decade.
The 28-year-old spent Monday at Portimao in Williams’s 2025 car, the FW47, completing 32 laps under Formula 1’s Testing of Previous Cars program. She is the first woman to drive a Williams F1 car since Susie Wolff in 2015, and the first female driver to test any F1 machine since Doriane Pin ran a 2021 Mercedes at Silverstone in April.
Chadwick did not hide what the day meant.
“It was a phenomenal day and an incredible experience. 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.”
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“I’d go as far as saying it’s been the best day of my life so far.”
Three W Series titles behind her
Chadwick has been attached to Williams since 2019, when she joined as a development driver. She won all three seasons of the all-female W Series, in 2024 became the first woman to win a road-course race in the US-based Indy NXT series, and currently races in the European Le Mans Series’ LMP2 class.
The Portimao run was pitched as much for what she can pass on as for the laps themselves.
“I’d love to be able to do the same for the next generation, and the experience I gained will make a real difference both to my own racing and to what I can pass on to the drivers coming through,” she said.
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Vowles points to a path for women
Williams team principal James Vowles framed the test as validation of a project years in the making, describing Chadwick as record-breaking at every step of her career.
“Jamie Chadwick is an inspiration for millions of women and girls who has broken records at every level,” Vowles said.
“This clearly shows there is a path for women to compete at the top level.”
The Algarve venue was not incidental. Portimao is scheduled to return to the F1 calendar in 2027, and Williams gathered baseline data on the track alongside Chadwick’s laps.
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