Another crown on the line for W Series multiple champion Jamie Chadwick
29 September 2022, Singapore - It is not just Formula 1 that has championship glory under the lights at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, with W Series’ enduring powerhouse Jamie Chadwick able to secure her third-straight championship if she wins the race on Sunday or simply outscores the next three drivers in the standings.
Chadwick, who is a part of F1 team Williams’ driver academy, won five-straight races to start the season, enabling her to put one hand on the crown before her fellow Brit Alice Powell finally ended that golden run in Hungary.
But, while the 24-year-old has a 75-point advantage over both Powell and rival Beitske Visser, she is not doing anything different on W Series’ first trip to Asia.
“The goal in Singapore is to win the title and my approach to the weekend won’t change,” Chadwick said. “It's too complicated to work out all the scenarios with the points and then drive tactically. I'll just go out there and do the best job I can. There are still lots of races to go, so I don't need to be conservative.”
Chadwick hasn’t had it easy, though, with Powell and Visser challenging her for the championship silverware in 2021 and 2019 respectively. Singapore will be another level again, given the intense heat and 23-corners, meaning there is no room for error across the entire weekend.
“It's easy to make a mistake, the grip is low in some places, and we'll be out early so the practice session will be dusty,” said Chadwick, who travelled to Singapore on holiday during the European summer to acclimatise.
“Keeping it on the road and managing the conditions will be key. Our sessions won't be as late as Formula 1's, so it's going to be hotter for us. But we've had lots of hot races already this year and I know what I need to do from a physical point of view.”
All the drivers, however, will be able to learn from Filipino Bianca Bustamante, who has previously driven at Marina Bay during her karting career but neither on the full circuit, nor in the one-make Tatuus F3 T-318, a race car homologated to the latest FIA F3 specification with a 4-cylinder turbo 270hp engine.
“I've raced karts in Singapore since the age of eight, and it was always a dream to drive on the Marina Bay Street Circuit, so I can't believe that dream is becoming a reality,” she said.
One driver who will be soaking up all the information she can is Norwegian Ayla Agren, who makes her 2022 debut replacing Tereza Babickova who sustained a spinal injury in a Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine race held at Austria’s Red Bull Ring earlier in September.
Regardless, the 23-turn Marina Bay Street Circuit will be a huge challenge for everyone in W Series – and for good reason.
“It's a new circuit for us,” says W Series’ Racing Director Dave Ryan.
“So track time is limited, the surface is bumpy, the walls are not far away, our sessions take place in a range of lighting conditions, and the heat and humidity are intense, even more so for our drivers than the F1 drivers given we will be on-track before sunset for qualifying and the race.”