Jost Capito affirmed that Jamie Chadwick is still part of the Williams F1 academy and it is her choice to do W Series which they support.
Post the announcement from W Series that Chadwick will return to defend her title for the second time in 2022 racing for Jenner Racing, it generated some criticism not only for the British racer but also the junior championship and its credibility.
With the idea to provide a platform to female racers to progress from the junior ranks, it seemed like a step back for the series and Chadwick to continue for a third season. She took to social media to defend her point which pointed out her budget limitations.
“I know, I’ve read a lot of the comments, there is a lot of frustration that I haven’t been able to progress up into the next step in Formula 3 or Formula 2 and trust me, I hear it, I know,” said Chadwick in a video she posted on social media. “I also wanted to make that step and I made no secret of that when I won the championship last year.
“Of course it was something I wanted to progress into, but honestly, there are so many factors that go into getting a seat like that, particularly a competitive one. I think the predominant one is funding, and to be completely honest, in the short space of time that we had, we weren’t able to secure the funding that we needed.
“Of course, it means that I’m coming back to W Series, but I don’t see that as a backwards step, I think it’s still another opportunity to be racing, to be trying to raise the budget and the funding to go to the next step, which I still believe is possible. Even if not in Europe, in America, I think there is so many opportunities still, so yeah, I’m still very grateful for W Series.
“Honestly, I wouldn’t be racing in the first place without them, so the fact we can even have this discussion about me going to F3 or F2 is something two or three years ago I wouldn’t have had. It’s not the end, we’ve got a long term goal. Obviously this year is not going to be F3 or F2 but maybe next year it will,” summed up Chadwick.
While she has raced in Extreme E and some other categories, she also remains a part of the Williams F1 academy for another year in 2022 as confirmed by Capito. The German added that she will undertake training programmes as set out by the team.
When asked about her decision to race in W Series, Capito stated that they back her on the decision, but also advised that if she has the objective to be in F1, she will have to compete in F2 and or F3 in the coming years for them to evaluate her properly.
“We still have the relationship with Jamie,” said Capito to media including FormulaRapida.net. “She is still in our academy, we will see how she develops. We have now proper academy, we do training camps with them and Jamie will be part of these training camps. We will see how she develops, and we will decide during the season what the next steps are.
“I think that’s upto her how she sees her career develops and we will support her in how she sees it develops. I think she had couple of options [for 2022] and if she decided to be in W Series again, that’s her decision and we support her decision. If she has the objective to go to F1, at a certain point, she has to go through F2 and F3 sure,” summed up Capito.
Here’s Williams drivers on 2022 cars
Here’s Nicholas Latifi on aftermath of Abu Dhabi