Can Lia Block be the first U.S. woman driver in F1?

JAMIE CHADWICK IS celebrating on stage at the Miami Grand Prix, air-strumming a pink electric guitar trophy. It’s May 2022, and she has just won the second of two races to open the third season of the W Series, the all-woman single-seater championship.

Chadwick has been dominant. She led every lap of this race from pole and took the checkered flag almost three seconds ahead of second place. The British driver now has a massive 24-point lead over the field, but she isn’t just competing for her third straight W Series title. Her goal is to race in the most prestigious circuit in open-wheel racing, and her performances in the W Series, as well as her title in the British GT Championship, have led her to be anointed the driver most likely to end the nearly-50-year drought of women racing in Formula One. After all, she’s the only driver not named Max Verstappen to win on a F1 weekend in South Florida.

“It’s amazing to be in the position where my name is associated with something like Formula One,” Chadwick says. “I use it as motivation.”

But two years later, as Chadwick returns to the Miami Grand Prix this weekend, the future in F1 that seemed so likely when she was on that stage has yet to materialize. Chadwick, who turns 26 in a few weeks, is still pursuing her goals, but she knows the clock is ticking. So this weekend, she’s focused on guiding one of the next young drivers trying to break through in an all-woman F1 development series.

“If it’s not me, I hope there’s someone else knocking on the door,” Chadwick says.

In Miami, Chadwick will be an official adviser to 17-year-old American Lia Block, guiding her through her first season racing for Williams in the F1 Academy. Chadwick wants Block to have everything she didn’t have at the same stage in her career, including a mentor who understands what she’s going through. No matter where Chadwick finishes behind the wheel this season in IndyCar’s top feeder series, Indy NXT — or where her career takes her next — she can be responsible for helping another young driver achieve her…