LONDON (Reuters) – Jamie Chadwick, the first winner of the all-female W Series, will race off-road next year after being announced on Wednesday as a driver for the Veloce Extreme E team.
The new five-race all-electric series is due to start in Saudi Arabia in March, with further rounds in Senegal, Greenland, Brazil and Argentina. Each competing team must enter a male and female driver.
“Testing the car was one of the best and most fun experiences I have had in my career so far,” said Chadwick, who has also served as a Williams Formula One development driver and has yet to confirm her other plans for 2021.
Veloce Racing team manager Ian Davies said the 22-year-old’s record spoke 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,” he said.
“Jamie would be the first to acknowledge that off-road driving is completely new to her, but she is a fast learner,” he added.
Extreme E aims to highlight climate change and promote sustainability with races in some of the world’s most remote and harsh environments that are already suffering from global warming and pollution.
Seven-times Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton and former team mate Nico Rosberg have both entered teams, although neither will be behind the wheel.
Other teams are the U.S.-based Andretti United and Chip Ganassi Racing.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Peter Rutherford)
