Jamie Chadwick announces INDY NXT move, joins Andretti Autosport

Jamie Chadwick will race in the 2023 INDY NXT championship in a DHL-sponsored Andretti Autosport entry - becoming the first full-time female driver in the top IndyCar feeder series in 13 years.

Photo credits: Penske Entertainment / Travis Hinkle

Three-time W Series champion Jamie Chadwick has announced she will contest her first season Stateside, as she joins Andretti Autosport for the 2023 Indy NXT championship - formerly known as IndyLights.

After testing the Andretti IndyLights Dallara IL15 for the first time last September in Sebring, Chadwick was also part of collective testing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where she continued the adaptation process to the car, which is a step forward from the Tatuus Formula Regional that she has driven since 2019 in W Series and FREC.

The 24-year-old from Bath, UK, has been the dominant protagonist of the all-female F3 championship W Series, where she claimed 11 wins, 18 podiums and 10 pole positions over the 21 races that the championship contested in three years.

Already a British F3 race winner, Chadwick rose to international fame in 2019 when she joined W Series and subsequently entered the Williams F1 Team Academy.

Her historic crown in 2019 was then followed by a season in Formula 3 Regional when W Series cancelled its 2020 season. Chadwick was fourth in the Formula Regional Asia - where she also became the first woman to claim a race win at F3 Regional level - and ninth in the European series, stepping on the podium at her first race.

She would return to W Series for 2021, when she battled with compatriot Alice Powell and eventually bagged her second title. While she tried to move up the single-seater ladder in 2022, a lack of funding prevented her to get a top esat in FIA F3 and Chadwick returned to W Series, where she kept momentum in a record-breaking campaign that gained her the third consecutive title in the all-female championship, 50 points clear of the nearest competitor.

The Williams Racing junior has now finally announced she will take part in the 14-race season in the top IndyCar feeder series - in what would be her first year in the United States.

At the wheel of the #28 DHL-sponsored Andretti Autosport machine, Jamie Chadwick will become the first full-time female driver in the championship in 13 years, since Pippa Mann last entered the series full-time.

“I’m really happy to be stepping up into INDY NXT next year", commented Chadwick.

"It’s a great opportunity for me to be able to get a lot of seat time and continue my development."

Andretti Autosport is currently the team champion of the category, and has historically been one of the benchmark teams on the IndyCar ladder.

"Racing for a team like Andretti is going to be an amazing experience and I’m really looking forward to racing in the United States", Jamie continued. "A massive thank you to Williams for the support they’ve given me on my journey since joining the Academy in 2019", she added, as the British racer will remain part of the F1 team Academy in 2023.

"My aim is always to challenge myself and continue my progression as a driver and this represents not only a big step up but also a big step towards my goal of competing in the highest categories of single seater racing."

The 2023 season is set to get underway on March 5th, with the St. Petersburg Street Circuit round.