W Series champion Jamie Chadwick to go off-road with Veloce in Extreme E

LONDON – Jamie Chadwick, the first champion within the all-female W Series, continues to be bitten through the rally bug after testing the electrical SUV she will race for the Veloce team in Extreme E next year.

The new electric off-road series, which aims to raise awareness about global warming, starts up in the Saudi Arabian desert in March, with further rounds in Senegal, Greenland, Brazil and Argentina.

Each from the 10 competing teams must enter a male and female driver, and Veloce confirmed Chadwick on Wednesday.

“It's really, really taken my interest,” the Briton, who is additionally a Williams F1 development driver and hopes to support the role regardless of the team’s recent change of ownership, told Reuters.

“I'm under no illusions about how exactly much I will need to learn. It is a lot of fun but additionally a discipline that I've now engaged a lot more with.

“There is a style that is required that could actually really suit me … the ultimate E format is actually short, sharp and intense therefore the physicality of it is not as bad as some of the track stuff.

“It's definitely something Let me do more of and I’m keen to develop my off-road horizons.”

The 22-year-old said she would have an interest and in eventually entering the Dakar Rally, the endurance event that had a lady winner the german language Jutta Kleinschmidt in 2001 when locked in Africa.

Chadwick has yet to confirm other plans for 2021, with the W Series because of support F1 at eight races but yet to write a calendar. The 2021 campaign was wiped off due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Three of the planned Extreme E races clash with Formula One’s dates.

Chadwick is backed by New Zealand-based, high-performance car maker Rodin and she or he said that may also result in another opportunity elsewhere.

“The very first focus is obviously Extreme E. At the moment I’m committed to all five rounds but we’ll have to see the other calendar clashes might come up and then we can make a decision,” she said.

Chadwick is racing in regional Formula Three in Italy this year but results happen to be disappointing and she is unlikely to come back even though teams can run an additional car for a female driver.

Extreme E aims to advertise sustainability and lift awareness with races in some of the world’s most remote and harsh environments that are suffering from climatic change and pollution.

Seven-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton and former team mate Nico Rosberg have entered teams, although neither will race.

Other teams would be the U.S.-based Andretti United and Chip Ganassi Racing.