Jamie Chadwick wants to become an NTT IndyCar Series driver, and when it was time to pick the venue for her first test, the Briton and her Andretti Global team selected the most physically grueling venue on the schedule.
As the smallest and lightest driver across the IndyCar and Indy NXT series, Chadwick has undergone a complete transformation since joining the Andretti team in 2023, adding considerable amounts of muscle mass in all the areas needed to control the car for long durations. Her year-to-year progress was directly responsible for Chadwick’s rise in competitiveness –including the earning of her first NXT pole and victory — on the way to placing seventh in the 2024 championship.
But the Dallara chassis used in NXT is far lighter and makes much less downforce than the No. 25 Dallara-Honda IndyCar she drove on Monday at Barber, and with the ambition to graduate to IndyCar, the outing was educational in multiple ways.
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“It was just an incredible day,” Chadwick told RACER. “I think just having the opportunity to drive the IndyCar, aside from getting wrapped up in performance and all that kind of stuff, is just very, very cool. It’s also impressive working with so many more people from Andretti, a lot of the people I see on the pit stand for the current drivers. In terms of expectations, I prepared for the worst. In terms of the physicality, there’s a reason we wanted to test at Barber, and I think for sure it met those expectations. It’s super-physical.
“In some respects, I was happy with how manageable the step from Indy NXT to IndyCar is, but at the same time, that comes with increased torque in steering in the high speed corners. I was chasing myself a little bit with that. But I’m really glad I did the test here, because it gave me the full picture of what IndyCar is all about, and what I really need to work on, which is strength. I had been training hard, but I think it’s another big step again.”
Chadwick’s best lap was 1.056s shy of the best turned on Monday by 2022 Formula 2 champion Felipe Drugovich with the Chip Ganassi Racing team. Craig Hampson, Andretti’s head of IndyCar engineering and among the most decorated race engineers in the series, was thoroughly impressed with all aspects of Chadwick’s performance, and highlighted the need for more upper body strength to capture the time Drugovich was able to erase in the faster and more physical turns.
“She had no problem making lap time in the slower speed corners,” he said. “But there are three high-speed corners here that you can make big chunks of lap time on, and that’s where she wasn’t able to get the lap time out of the car in those corners.”
The most common moves to make it easier for a driver to turn the car involve adjusting the sizing of the steering wheel and modifying the castor settings. Chadwick knows there are more changes that can be made to lighten the steering input, but says it’s too early to say whether those items — and a more aggressive training regimen — will be enough to extract the maximum from the car at its hardest tracks.
“Honestly, at this point, I’m not 100% sure,” she said. “Part of me is like, there’s so much that feels that’s within reach with IndyCar, but it’s a big step physically, and I’m going to do everything in my absolute power to do that. Whether I can get fully on top of it, I don’t know. I think I need to get halfway, and ideally, we can find some other stuff with the team to help me with steering effort, which is exactly what we did in Indy NXT. So I need an honest discussion with them, honest discussion with myself as to what I feel like I can achieve. But it’s made me hungry for IndyCar, for sure. You get in a car like that, you don’t want to get out of it.”
The Andretti team has said it would welcome Chadwick back for a third season of NXT, where she’d be an instant title contender. With no vacancies in its IndyCar team, Chadwick would need to leave Andretti to graduate to IndyCar in 2025, and so she’ll need to use the findings from Barber to decide which path to follow in the short term.
“I don’t want to just make up the numbers in IndyCar,” she said. “It’s going to take me time, but I want to be there, because I deserve to be there. And I can be competitive. And from the test, I know I can be competitive, but only if I’ve got everything going for me, every bit of strength. So working out that bit is going to be the next step.”
Andretti IndyCar driver Kyle Kirkwood flew to Barber to be there and assist Chadwick. Her NXT race engineer was also in attendance, as was Olivier Boisson — Marcus Ericsson’s engineer — to run the car for the day. The depth of support from the Andretti organization spoke to the respect and belief they have in her.
“Kyle is someone that I’ve learned a lot from,” she said. “His feedback, and even him being there today, the way he articulated things to me, and even when I hear him speak with the engineers separately, I think there’s a lot to be learned with that as well.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to spend time in F1 paddocks and pick up things, and they train up good people at Andretti in terms of drivers. I’m very grateful to Andretti you for the opportunity. I don’t know what it will lead to, but I still had an unbelievable experience.”