Jamie Chadwick: Formula E all-female test event great for 'representation'

Jamie Chadwick said driving in an all-female Formula E test-event is "great" for the representation of women in motorsport.

Chadwick was one of 22 female drivers at the event on Friday at the Ricardo Tormo circuit near Valencia, Spain.

The 26-year-old had a seat with current world champions Jaguar TCS Racing for the event and will also take part in the Formula E rookie test at the Berlin Eâ€'Prix with the team next year.

"It's great for us all to have this opportunity at this level, world championship level," Chadwick told BBC Radio Somerset.

"It's hard to get seat-time in a car like this as it is so it's a great opportunity, it's great for representation of women in the sport and very excited to get it under way."

There are currently no female drivers in a Formula E race seat.

The FIA-organised event requires all current teams in the championship to field at least one female driver for the half-day test, with many fielding two.

Three women have previously competed in a Formula E race, all during the inaugural 2014 season - Briton's Katherine Legge, Swiss Simona de Silvestro and Italian Michela Cerruti.

Chadwick has previously driven a Formula E car for Jaguar in 2020 during a rookie test event in Marrakesh.

"It's an opportunity I'm very grateful to have and relish," Chadwick added.

Chadwick is also a development driver with Williams' Formula 1 team and a three-times W Series winner.

The last two years she has been racing Indy NXT in the United States - the second tier of the USA's open-wheel racing format IndyCar.

In June she became the first female driver to win a race on a road or street circuit in IndyCar's feeder series.

Formula E races identical lithium-ion battery-powered open-cockpit cars which Chadwick said were "pretty significantly" different than any she had driven before.

"I think that's part of the skill of being a driver and something I've always enjoyed doing," Chadwick said.

"With all the systems, the way that the cars are, the drivers are engineers in some regards. I think [the cars are] different to what a lot of us have done before so it's a whole new learning in that sense but something I'm really enjoying.

"A lot of data, a lot of different tools and things you can use and then no one wants any of the other teams to know what they're doing so it's all coded in different ways. It is something that takes a bit of time getting used to."