No F1 test for Williams’ new female driver

Jamie Chadwick

(GMM) Claire Williams says female driver Jamie Chadwick will not test the F1 car any time soon.

Recently, the British team signed up the 21-year-old 'W Series' frontrunner as a development driver.

Some think it could be part of a reaction to the earlier news that, of F1's ten teams, Williams' was the one with the biggest "gender gap" between male and female staff.

"Yes, another stick with which people are beating us at the moment," boss Claire Williams said when asked about that.

Williams says Chadwick will be working in the Williams simulator.

"Full immersion in the factory, working with the engineers to support her campaign this year. It all goes to promoting women in motor sport," she said.

But Williams denied that Chadwick could be given time at the wheel of the F1 car, as Susie Wolff did some years ago.

"At the moment it is reserved to simulator work and then coming to a few races with us to see the team trackside and how we operate in F1," she said. "There are no plans at the moment to put her in an F1 car."