Veloce Racing has confirmed Jamie Chadwick as its female driver for the inaugural season of groundbreaking, electric off-road championship Extreme E. 

Chadwick is a Williams F1 development driver and W Series Champion, and widely regarded as one of the UK’s brightest young talents.

Making her motorsport debut in the Ginetta Junior Championship, she went on to win the 2015 British GT Championship in the GT4 class, before moving to the British Formula 3 Championship in 2017, and in 2019 took the MRF Challenge Formula 2000 title. In the same year, she went on to make history in the W Series Championship, as the first driver ever with a brace of wins and five podium finishes from six races. 

When she’s not been driving, Chadwick has been acting as an ambassador for Girls on Track, an initiative led by Motorsport UK and the FIA to encourage more females to enter motorsport. 

Extreme E will mark Chadwick’s debut in the off-road scene, and the 22-year old has spent the past week driving the ODYSSEY 21 at Fontjoncouse in southern France, with more practice scheduled for a group test at MotorLand Arágon in Spain next month.

Alongside her new Extreme E commitments, Chadwick is also competing in the Formula Regional European Championship with Prema Powerteam, and the backing of Rodin Cars. 

Discussing her involvement with Veloce and Extreme E, Chadwick said:

“I am proud to be driving for Veloce Racing in such a revolutionary championship as Extreme E! I have been involved with Veloce for a very long time and they are like a family to me, so I am incredibly honoured to be their female driver for what is such an exciting and important race series.

“Climate change is something that affects us all, so I’m really keen to start doing my part to fight it. I can safely say that testing the car was one of the best and most fun experiences I have had in my career so far. I can’t wait to get out to the amazing venues where we’ll be racing next year; these are some of the most beautiful and endangered locations on our planet. Both on and off-track, it promises to be an incredibly rewarding journey.”

Super proud to have been given the opportunity to race with @VeloceRacingXE in next year’s @ExtremeELive Championship ⚡ Excited to be a part of such an important series for our planet! 💃🏻 🙌🏻 #VivaVeloce #ExtremeE pic.twitter.com/0bxmPZ1WIa

— Jamie Chadwick (@JamieChadwick55) November 25, 2020

While Veloce Racing Team Manager, Ian Davies, added:

“We are delighted to have Jamie on-board at Veloce for the first season of Extreme E. She is a very quick, talented and committed young driver, with a pedigree that quite frankly speaks for itself. Having won titles in both sportscars and single-seaters, there is no reason at all why she shouldn’t transfer those skills and win in Extreme E, in what promises to be a very high-calibre field.

“Her first test in the ODYSSEY 21 during our shakedown in France last week was a very positive and encouraging start. Her experience from single-seater and GT competition was invaluable to the early development of our car – from quick driver changes to initial and mid-corner turn-in – and she had significant input into our engineering refinements.

“Jamie would be the first to acknowledge that off-road driving is completely new to her, but she is a fast learner and she listened carefully to everything we had to say, worked well with the engineers, took it all on-board and – most importantly – got quicker and quicker with every run. We are all very excited to see what she can achieve when we go racing next year.”

Chadwick’s male teammate has yet to be confirmed, but will be joining her for the full 2021 Extreme E Championship, with events scheduled for Al-Ula, Saudi Arabia (20-21 March), Dakar, Senegal (29-30 May), Kangerlussuaq, Greenland (28-29 August), Para, Brazil (23-24 October) and Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina (11-12 December).

AYO.NEWS says:

Veloce Racing, which merged with Veloce Esports earlier this year to create a hybrid real-world/sim-world racing organisation, is gearing up for a serious start to the Extreme E Championship! In addition to bringing on top talent like Chadwick, it’s also forging impressive commercial partnerships – only last week, Veloce announced a partnership with Dutch watchmaker TW Steel. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

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