Jamie Chadwick's dream of reaching the IndyCar Series is over, at least for now, as she'll switch her attention to the Le Mans 24 Hours next year.
Chadwick - alongside ex-Williams Formula 1 driver Logan Sargeant - has signed up for the new sportscar programme by Genesis - an offshoot brand of Hyundai - which means a season in the LMP2 category and a first time competing at Le Mans.
She's confirmed in a social media post that means IndyCar is no longer in her "immediately plans", putting a least a temporary halt to her pursuit of a place in top-level single-seater racing.
Chadwick switched to IndyCar feeder series Indy NXT for 2023 off the back of three consecutive W Series championships. Having not competed in the United States or on ovals before, it was a big leap, but this year she upped her competitiveness becoming the first female to win in the championship on a road or street circuit on the way to seventh in the standings.
A post-season test with Andretti in its IndyCar at Barber followed, but after that, interest in an IndyCar switch cooled and, via a test with Jaguar in Formula E, Chadwick is setting out on a new challenge in the European Le Mans Series.
How did Chadwick do in Indy NXT?
Chadwick's first season in 2023 was always going to be a learning year with Firestone tyres, ovals and all the tracks to learn, and up against a decent grid of drivers at least four of which will be on the IndyCar grid next year.
The second half of the year was much stronger, but even so, there was always an acceptance that judging her in 2024 was going to be the key for deciding if she was going to make it for IndyCar.
A lot of 2024 went the way of 2023. While Chadwick's pace in qualifying has sometimes left a lot to be desired, especially in '23, I think her racecraft has been much better than a lot of the drivers around her and she was caught in a string of incidents early in 2024 that zapped her points tally.
Typical of Chadwick, when The Race put these incidents outside of her control to her she pointed to that being the case for every driver and, as usual, took responsibility for her own form. It's one of my favourite things about Chadwick - that unlike a lot of drivers out there, she ‘fesses up and is capable of admitting mistakes and critiquing her performance.
Chadwick’s 2024 losses
St Petersburg
Qualified 10th, hit by Josh Pierson to finish 20th
Barber
Qualified fifth, spun attempting an overtake at Turn 1
Indianapolis road course
Qualified sixth, ran fourth before a gear-shifting issue
Detroit
Qualified fourth, taken out by Yuven Sundaramoorthy
Of course, winning at Road America was the highlight of the year and an event many people will remember for years to come, but there were other subtle improvements too such as a brilliant end of season run of qualifying on ovals. While the results on paper weren't always what you'd want, there was always a bit of progression somewhere across a weekend.
Chadwick also impressed on her IndyCar test, but questioned whether she could reach the level needed to be as committed in the higher speed corners. There's no power steering in the IndyCar and the higher-G corners require a lot of physicality.
"I need an honest discussion with them [the team], honest discussion with myself as to what I feel like I can achieve," Chadwick told Racer. She added: "Whether I can get fully on top of it, I don’t know."
2025 IndyCar driver line-up so far
AJ Foyt: Santino Ferrucci, David Malukas
Andretti: Marcus Ericsson, Colton Herta, Kyle Kirkwood
Arrow McLaren: Pato O'Ward, Christian Lundgaard, Nolan Siegel
Chip Ganassi: Scott Dixon, Alex Palou, Kyffin Simpson
Dale Coyne: TBC, TBC
Ed Carpenter: Christian Rasmussen, Alexander Rossi
Juncos Hollinger: Sting Ray Robb, TBC
Meyer Shank: Marcus Armstrong, Felix Rosenqvist
Prema: Callum Ilott, Robert Shwartzman
Rahal Letterman Lanigan: Louis Foster, Graham Rahal, TBC
Team Penske: Scott McLaughlin, Josef Newgarden, Will Power
Ultimately, it's possible that Chadwick decided she could do the things required to be competitive in IndyCar but took a better opportunity with Genesis. There's no secret that there are so few seats on the grid in IndyCar - four to be exact - at the moment and while Chadwick has had some good backers in the US, you can't magic an entry out of nowhere.
Especially when IndyCar has moved to chartered entries for 2025, meaning any non-chartered car would need to qualify to get into the races.
There will always be the people who say Chadwick doesn't deserve to be in IndyCar and is only where she is at because of the backing she receives.
She didn't deserve to reach IndyCar on merit next year, but that doesn't mean she wouldn't be a good IndyCar driver, or that all IndyCar drivers deserve to be there on merit. She had so much bad luck and things outside of her control this year - and I'm not saying that because of her gender, it's just facts.
One thing is for certain: that IndyCar fans would have loved to have another female on the grid. It's a championship that has been good at promoting female talent in the past and another driver would be a welcome renewal of that momentum.
