Jamie Chadwick's Williams run at Portimão: 32 laps that matter more than a lap time

A real F1 car, not a museum piece

Until now, Chadwick had mostly known Williams through its history. At Goodwood she had already driven Nigel Mansell's FW14B, the 1992 world champion, and Keke Rosberg's title-winning FW08 from 1982. Beautiful machines, but nothing like what awaited her in Portugal: the FW47, the car the Grove team raced in 2025, one of its most competitive in years.

The 28-year-old Briton completed 32 laps of the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve after a thorough build-up: simulator sessions, physical training and a seat fitting at the factory. Williams did not release a lap time, and that is probably the more honest approach. A first day in a current F1 car is not meant to establish a pecking order, especially with no race driver on hand as a benchmark.

TPC, the way in

This was not an official test session. It took place under the TPC programme, short for Testing of Previous Cars, which lets teams run pre-2026 machinery on up to twenty days a year, with race drivers capped at 1,000 km in total. Not every team has one. Williams set up its own last year, and that is exactly what made the run possible.

Picking Portimão was no accident either. The circuit returns to the calendar in 2027, and the team used the day to gather baseline data on this hilly, notoriously tricky layout. Business and symbolism in one go: James Vowles made no secret of it, praising his driver's technical feedback as much as her performance.

Eleven years after Susie Wolff

The symbolic weight is obvious. No woman had driven a Williams F1 car since Susie Wolff, who took part in several practice sessions for the team in 2014 and 2015. Chadwick says it herself: watching Wolff climb into that car when she was younger shaped her own path, and she would like to play that role for the next generation. She went as far as calling it the best day of her life.

She is not the only one this year. Reigning F1 Academy champion Doriane Pin also tested an F1 car with Mercedes, but in the 2021 W12. Chadwick therefore drove the more recent machine of the two. Before them, Jessica Hawkins drove an Aston Martin in 2023.

Her record more than justifies the invitation. Three W Series titles, an Indy NXT win, the first by a woman in the series in fifteen years, LMP2 victories in the European Le Mans Series and a reserve role in Genesis's Hypercar programme in the WEC. With Williams since 2019, when she joined as a development driver, she is now a team ambassador and F1 Academy adviser.

That leaves the question everyone is asking without saying it too loudly: what next? No woman has started a Grand Prix since Lella Lombardi in 1976, and one test does not change that overnight. But it gives Chadwick first-hand experience to pass on to the young drivers she mentors, and gives Williams a head start on Portimão. Footage of the day will be shown during the Baku weekend, a chance to see just how much 32 laps can tell.