LONDON — Jamie Chadwick, the initial winner of the all-woman W Collection, may perhaps not be back to protect her title upcoming year immediately after securing a coveted seat in the Regional European Formulation 3 championship.

The 22-year-old Briton introduced on Tuesday she is going up the motorsport ladder and getting on the adult men by becoming a member of major Italy-based mostly team Prema.

Her teammates will contain Arthur Leclerc, younger brother of Ferrari F1 driver Charles who also raced for Prema on his way up. The team’s latest F2 roster contains Michael Schumacher’s son Mick.

The W Collection season has been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Chadwick has turned disappointment into chance many thanks to backing from Australian entrepreneur David Dicker, rich owner of New Zealand-based mostly Rodin vehicles.

“The stars all commenced to align,” she informed Reuters by phone from Italy, in which she is screening and will keep on being for as very long as Britain has quarantine in location for returning tourists.

“Inside only a couple of times we received the backing from Rodin, the W Collection received canceled and the seat arrived obtainable with Prema. It was a small little bit all far too superior timing.”

An additional W Collection title would have handed Chadwick fifteen points to the required Formulation 1 superlicense, but the FIA-backed Regional collection gives 25 to the winner.

Chadwick, whose objective is to turn into the initial woman Formulation 1 driver because Italian Lella Lombardi in 1976, currently has 10 to the forty required immediately after ending fourth in the Asian F3 championship.

“This offers me a new chance at this year,” she stated. “A team like Prema, it is an incredible chance.

“I have to credit score W Collection, simply because none of this would have been probable devoid of them. I would not have received to this level in my career and get observed by somebody like Rodin vehicles devoid of the W Collection. I’m so grateful for the leg up they’ve supplied me.”

Rodin helps make one-seater vehicles able of Formulation 1 amounts of functionality.

Chadwick indicated that if all went properly, returning to W Collection in 2021 would possible cease to be an selection.

“Realistically the intention would be search at FIA F3 for upcoming year, off the back of a productive year ideally,” she stated.

“The supreme objective at the starting of this year was a little bit different to what it is now, but I feel supplied the situation we’ve come out of the predicament fairly robust.”

The W Collection is managing an esports league to continue to keep its drivers occupied in the absence of serious racing, and Chadwick indicated her career transfer described her unimpressive recent on the web performances.

“I did not practice fairly as a great deal as I required to. I was in the center of brokering this deal, and there was a whole lot heading on and my emphasis was not a hundred% on the esports championship,” she stated.

“But I did set fairly a little bit of time in. It was really competitive and caught me out.”