British pair battle for title on W Series decisive weekend
Chadwick and Powell share lead going into double header Austin races will determine gripping finale to the season
With just six points separating Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in the Formula One drivers’ championship, the race for the title could hardly be closer. But try telling that to W Series contenders Alice Powell and Jamie Chadwick.
The two Britons are locked on 109 points apiece in the all-women series. And, unlike F1, which still has six races of the season to run, W Series is set to be decided in Austin this weekend.
A thrilling, season-deciding double header will be a lively accompaniment to the main event at the Circuit of the Americas, with Powell and Chadwick set to go head to head in races today and tomorrow to determine who emerges victorious in the sport’s second season.
Powell, at 28, is the more experienced of the two. The first woman to win a Formula Renault championship, way back in 2010, she also became, in 2012, the first woman to score points in GP3. But she had a lean few years before W Series came calling, taking four years out because of a lack of funding. Even now, she still only competes part time.
Chadwick, 23, is motorsport’s golden girl, the winner of W Series’ inaugural championship, having a role as Williams’s development driver and designs on eventually making a debut in Formula One herself.
That prospect could become more realistic for the winner of this year’s W Series, with 15 FIA super licence points on offer as well as $500,000 (£362,000) in prize money, hugely beneficial for backing their future racing.
Forty super licence points are required to race in F1, with 25 needed to take part in a free practice session.
Lella Lombardi was the last female driver to race in a grand prix, in Austria in 1976. Crucially, Powell has three wins to her rival’s two this season. And there is even a slim chance she could wrap up the title today if she wins tonight’s race at 11.25pm and Chadwick fails to score. That would mean she claims the title regardless of the results of the final race with a 25-point lead and more wins on countback.
It is more likely, given that Chadwick has not been off the podium at all since finishing sixth in the opening race of the season at the Red Bull Ring, that the title will be decided in tomorrow’s race, which starts at 5.05pm. Whoever ends up triumphant, there is unlikely to be any of the tension that has
at times overshadowed F1’s title race.
“I’ve known Jamie for a long time,” Powell said this week. “I knew her when she was in Ginetta Juniors [a series for drivers aged 14-17], and we played hockey together when we were younger because her family home is not far from mine. We get on well and have respect for each other.
“I know how talented and fast Jamie is and I’m looking forward to a good fight at Cota.”
Chadwick, meanwhile, said that
she had huge respect for her compatriot but would be going all out to secure those all-important super licence points. “It would mean everything to defend my W Series title,” she said.
“You can’t underestimate the opportunity we have with W Series, particularly this year being on the F1 support bill and the super licence points on offer. So the stakes are much higher but that’s a nice pressure to thrive on and a massive incentive for me to go out there and try to win.”