The Jamie Chadwick Williams F1 test at Portimao is done, and the numbers are in. She ran 32 laps in a Williams Formula 1 car at the Portuguese circuit and has called the whole experience the outright highlight of her motorsport career.
“In terms of a dream or a bucket list item, it’s definitely the top,” Chadwick said of driving the car. She went further when asked what the laps actually felt like from the cockpit, describing her surreal experience at Portimao in some detail.
“It was pretty surreal. It’s kind of everything I imagined, but more. The feeling you get from a car like that is pretty incredible. And then at a track like Portimao, it’s a proper rollercoaster,” she said.
Chadwick Completes 32-Lap Williams F1 Test at Portimao
Thirty two laps is a proper run for any F1 test, and it gave Chadwick a real sense of what the car can do around a circuit as demanding as Portimao. The track’s blind crests and elevation changes have always tested drivers, and she felt every bit of that.
None of this happened by accident. Williams have kept Chadwick involved for years, and this test is the clearest sign yet that the relationship still matters to both sides.
Official Test Details and Chadwick’s Historic Development Role
Chadwick joined Williams as a development driver back in 2019 and has stayed part of the team’s set-up ever since, an association our archive tracked when she was retained as a development driver for the 2021 season.
Her results explain why the team has kept faith in her. She won three W Series titles and became the first woman to win a road race in IndyCar’s feeder series, Indy NXT. That record, built across single seaters rather than one lucky weekend, is exactly the kind of CV that earns a driver a proper F1 test rather than a token run.
Physical Demands of Formula 1 Machinery and Tactical Context
F1 cars punish the body in ways most road racing simply doesn’t, and Chadwick did not hold back describing it. “I can’t really put it into words the G-force and the feeling on your neck. As soon as you accelerate out of the pit-lane, your head hits the back of the headrest because it’s so aggressive,” she said.
The neck strain, in particular, caught her off guard even with her own training background. “I train my neck anyway for what I do, but it’s that times 10. Just the sheer level of strength that’s required in the neck is huge,” she said.
The morning after summed it up best. “You wake up the next morning like you’ve been in a fight with Mike Tyson. It feels like you’ve been beaten about a bit, but it’s an incredible feeling,” Chadwick said, according to a BBC Sport report.
Timeline for Female Representation and Portimao Calendar Return
Chadwick’s test sits inside a much bigger picture. Only 13 women have ever driven an F1 car. Five have entered an official grand prix weekend, and just two have actually raced.
Maria Teresa de Filippis became the first woman to drive in F1 back in 1958, finishing 10th in the Belgian Grand Prix. Lella Lombardi remains the only woman to score points in the championship, across 17 grands prix. Susie Wolff drove a Williams car in FP1 at the 2014 British Grand Prix, and more recently Doriane Pin won the 2025 F1 Academy title before testing a Mercedes F1 car in April, becoming the first woman to do so for that team.
Chadwick was careful not to put a date on when the next step might come. “Shouldn’t be a timeline on it,” she said, before adding: “I definitely believe the talent is out there,” and “And I’m excited.”
She was also honest about how few seats exist at the top of the sport. “You’re looking at F2, F3 champions not getting seats and you realise that there’s more talent than there are seats often available. Then you narrow it down to a female driver and it’s even tougher and an even smaller talent pool,” she said, pointing to some of the barriers on the F1 grid that still shape who gets a chance.
Even so, she sees tests like hers as part of building a pathway rather than an end in themselves. “Me doing this test and Williams giving opportunities to female drivers for example, will hopefully lead to a race seat one day,” she said. “But I genuinely believe with everything that we’re doing now to support female talent it’s only going to lead in a positive direction.”
Portimao itself will get another chance to matter on the F1 calendar. The circuit is scheduled to return to the schedule in 2027, giving a track that already hosted grands prix during the pandemic era another shot at a permanent slot.
