Jamie Chadwick on motosport’s gender gap, her comfort dal tadka and finding courage in ‘Bend It Like Beckham’

When Jamie Chadwick first got behind the wheel of a go-kart, it was only to keep up with her older brother. “I honestly didn’t notice a single difference being a female racing driver from the age of 12 or so to maybe 18,” she reflects, describing what she calls her period of “blissful ignorance”, never questioning her place on the track. “I used to try to be one of the boys, laughing at jokes that weren’t even funny. Looking back, I wasn’t being the most authentic.” Chadwick is deeply relatable in these acknowledgements and speaks with a candour that reflects the complex navigation required of women in male-dominated spaces.

Her racing résumé reads like a script destined for the silver screen. She currently drives for IDEC Sport in the European Le Mans Series, where she became the first woman to secure an overall victory this year. Her trophy cabinet boasts championship wins in the all-female W Series and the fiercely competitive Indy Nxt. She’s an ambassador for Williams Racing, one of the most storied teams in motor racing. And it gets cooler. She took on the role of grand marshal at the 2025 Rolex 24 at Daytona and delivered the iconic “Drivers, start your engines” command, which she describes as a “movie moment”.

For many drivers, it’s commonplace to have family ties in racing that shape early opportunities and sponsorship. Chadwick’s story started far from the circuits, with neither parent connected to motor racing; her father, Michael, has had a successful career in property and farming, while her mother, Jasmine, is an Indian-born businesswoman. She credits her mentors, therapists and mom’s comforting dal tadka for finding and keeping her rhythm. Most tellingly, when I ask about films that resonated with her growing up, Chadwick cites Bend It Like Beckham, not just for its portrayal of pursuing an unconventional sport, but also for the experience of doing something “that wasn’t seen as cool”. She also draws parallels between endurance athletes in other sports as prime examples of why the gender gap in physical performance is a misleading explanation for the lack of women in motor racing, stating, “We lack numbers getting into the sport in the first place.” She advocates fiercely for more women to join through her karting series, supported by Rolex; she became an ambassador for the watchmaker in 2022.

A still from Bend it like Beckham (2002)