Teenage Formula One hopeful Jamie Chadwick is out to make supremo Bernie Ecclestone eat his words
Draconian bigwig once said female drivers 'should be dressed in white, like all the other domestic appliances'
BERNIE ECCLESTONE will have to eat his words if Jamie Chadwick gets her wish.
The draconian Formula One supremo questioned whether “a woman would physically be able to drive an F 1 car quickly” and said “they wouldn’t be taken seriously”.
Ecclestone also said female drivers “should be dressed in white, like all the other domestic appliances”.
No wonder then that with such outdated, misogynistic views the 86-year-old has been kicked out by F 1’s new owners Liberty Media.
Teenager Chadwick is currently competing for Double R Racing in the British F 3 championship — the UK’s top single-seater category.
The down-to-earth 19-year-old is taking on — and beating — the boys and has set her sights on F 1.
Chadwick made the step up from sportscars after becoming British GT4 champion in 2015.
And she plans to go one better than former Williams driver Susie Wolff by racing in a grand prix.
Other women in Formula One
TWO women have competed before in Formula One, both of them Italian.
Maria Teresa de Filippis was the first, in 1958-59, but won no points. Lella Lombardi raced in 12 Grands Prix, picking up half a point in the 1975 Spanish race.
Four others failed to qualify for a GP, including two Brits — former Winter Olympics skier Divina Galica in 1976 and 1978, and Susie Wolff in 2014.
The Bath youngster — who drives a 1.2-litre VW Polo off the track — said: “I’m the only woman in Formula 3 and you get the boys saying ‘I’ve been beaten by a girl!’.
“I don’t take that as an insult — it is good for me!
“I’ve not come across any sexism, which I was surprised about because it is a sport where the men are a bit laddish.
“You obviously have to get used to the way the engineers speak to you and it is not always going to be petals and roses.
“But I have never experienced any sexism in terms of my performance based on my gender.” Fellow Brit Wolff made the headlines in 2014 as the first woman in 22 years to take part in an F 1 weekend when she drove during free practice at Silverstone.
And while Chadwick’s role model is three-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, she acknowledges Wolff’s commitment to F1 shows a woman can reach the top.
She said: “Susie has done a really good job and it is a shame she never made the breakthrough and actually raced in F 1.
“But the fact she got so close makes her a role model for me.
“I can say ‘If Susie can do it, I can do it’. It shows there is no physical aspect stopping me from driving in Formula One.”
Chadwick added: “Most of my close friends knew me before I got into motor racing.
“It’s good to see them and not talk about racing. I like to live a normal life.
“But a lot of boys find it intimidating.
“They might be speaking about cars and thinking they know everything and I’m there thinking ‘No, you don’t . . .’ ”
Just like Bernie Ecclestone, then.
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