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

"It's becoming more important every year to have a reach [in order] to get sponsors and funding," Block says. "That's really important in this very expensive sport."

Some of what Block learned from her dad was taught, like those doughnuts, or the importance of making eye contact, and some she absorbed over years of watching him create a motorsports empire. "I spent so much time on Gymkhana shoots and at rally races and drifting around the garage in my little Mustang," Block says. "I always wanted to be my dad."

She also grew up around the action sports athletes her dad once sponsored and then raced against, absorbing the never-say-never attitude of athletes like Travis Pastrana and the late Dave Mirra. "Watching Supercross and going to X Games, it's made me believe nothing is impossible," Block says. "You fall down, you get back up, you try again."

As a driver, she's adopted that mentality, able to push herself outside of her comfort zone to find her limits. Like her peers in the F1 Academy, Block's first competitive turns came in karting at age 11, but the similarities mostly end there. While her competitors spent their careers in open-wheel racing, Block, the first American signed to race in the series, has spent hers competing on dirt, in rally cars that share more with a daily driver than an open-wheel racecar, and in a style of racing that favors contact.

Last year, at 16, Block became the youngest driver ever to win a major American rally title when she and co-driver Rhianon Gelsomino won the American Rally Association's Open 2WD title, the first all-woman team to do so. In December, she became the first woman to race the top class of Nitrocross, even hitting the track's massive gap jump.

But there is no jumping or bumping in open-wheel racing, at least not when drivers can avoid it. (And teams prefer their drivers avoid both at all costs.) Before this winter, most of what Block knew of Formula One she learned watching races on TV with her dad. She was focused on graduating from high school and achieving a few more goals in rally, like backing up her historic championship.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an F1 team called.

CHADWICK INITIATED THAT call. Last fall, Williams Racing sporting director Sven Smeets told her Williams, where Chadwick has been a development driver since 2019, planned to enter the F1 Academy in 2024 and he was looking for drivers. Chadwick immediately suggested Block.

She knew a bit about Block's background and had watched her compete last summer in Extreme E, an FIA-sanctioned international off-road series, and was impressed. Chadwick had piloted the series' electric SUV for Veloce in 2021 and knew how tough it was to drive. Lia had stepped in as a midseason replacement driver, something that would prove tough for a veteran, not to mention a 16-year-old who was the youngest ever to race in the series. "I thought, if she's got that kind of talent, she can put it into single seaters, too," Chadwick says.

Smeets was familiar with Block, but he didn't see how she would fit into his F1 Academy program. When Chadwick gave her reasons, "I said, 'If you think it's possible, then it's an easy decision for me,'" Smeets says. "What Lia had already done at her age was amazing."

Smeets reached out to Block and her mom, Lucy. When he learned Block had tested in a single seater once before and was intrigued by his offer, he brought her to Europe to tour the Williams facility, meet Chadwick and spend a day testing in Italy. "We saw enough potential to say, 'If this is something you want to try, then we would like for you to do the F1 Academy,'" Smeets says. "It took her five seconds to say yes. If it even took five seconds."

The truth is, Block considered Smeets' question -- even if she did most of her thinking after saying yes. She was comfortable and successful competing in rally. The F1 Academy was a gamble. She would have to learn an entirely new car, racing style and format. She would have to leave her family and friends and move to Europe for most of the year while finishing her final two years of high school. She would also race against only women after proving herself against men. "I went back and forth in my mind a lot," Block says. "To go from winning a rally championship to the bottom of open-wheel racing wasn't an easy decision.

"But this was the opportunity of a lifetime. A lottery ticket. I would kick myself if I didn't take this opportunity and make the most of it. I want to see if I can do what I think I can and compete against these really good drivers."

CHADWICK WAS ONCE in Block's shoes. More than anyone at Williams, she understands what it's like to be young, have limitless potential and feel like a fish out of water.

By 17, Chadwick was the first woman and youngest ever champion of the British GT Championship and racing in British Formula 3. She was one of the hottest young drivers in Europe.

Although she'd been racing since she was 11, when she chased her older brother, Ollie, into karting, she hadn't dreamed of competing at the top of the sport. She didn't think about being the only girl at the track most days. It wasn't until superlatives like "the first" and "the youngest" were attached to her name that she began to question whether she belonged.

"At first, I was blissfully unaware, enjoying what I was doing," Chadwick says. "And then I stopped and looked around and thought, these guys have been doing this their whole lives. Racing has been their dream since they were 6. I felt out of my depth. I didn't feel I belonged in that environment. I wish I'd had more people around to help me with that."

Like Block, Chadwick wasn't sure what to make of an all-woman series when the W Series launched in 2019. Many of her peers felt the same way. They'd spent their lives racing against boys -- and beating them -- and didn't see a need for a separate series.

After the W Series ended, Chadwick knew whatever her next move was, she would likely only have one year to prove herself -- again. Although she'd dominated all three seasons of the series, she never had an opportunity in F3 or F2 that felt right.

Then Andretti offered to bring her to the U.S. to be the first woman in 13 years to race full time in Indy NXT. "A good thing about going over to America is they give you time," Chadwick says. "They don't expect you to straight-away go in and blow the doors off everyone."

Unlike Chadwick, when Block is faced with similar tough decisions, she has someone to go to for advice who's been there. Since Block signed with Williams, Chadwick has spent time with her at HQ, accompanied her at testing and sends frequent text messages. "Jamie is probably the best placed person in our entire organization for Lia to get advice from and to help Lia with the transition from dirt into single-seater racing," Smeets says.

She can also help Block with advice off the track as she navigates a new team, new sponsors, being an American in a European-dominated sport, and a young series with all the potential -- and potential pitfalls -- the W Series once had. Chadwick says if she could go back in time and mentor her 17-year-old self, she'd tell her to keep her head down and not to compare herself to other drivers.

"I'd say, be in your own world," Chadwick says. "You're in a much better place if you don't get wrapped up in all the outside noise. I put so much pressure on myself, but I tell young drivers now to enjoy it and take the ride for what it is."

BLOCK LOOKS AT her phone and sees a message from Chadwick. It's the team's final day at the F1 Academy's opening weekend in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and although the two races didn't go as she would have liked -- she DNF'd in the first and finished P11 in the second -- the team is happy with Block's progression. She ran P3 in the first practice, nearly qualified P5 and clocked the third-fastest lap in the first race. That level of performance is on pace with the team's Year 2 goals and far beyond anything they expected from Block this weekend. "You should be happy with these three days," Chadwick texts. "The pace is definitely there. It's well-earned rest."

When Block arrived at the paddock in Jeddah, she says she was awestruck by the size of it all. "I kept saying, 'I can't believe we're actually here,'" says Block, who had never been to an F1 race. "Scanning my pass and walking through the turnstiles into the F1 paddock for the first time, it was like, 'I'm really here. How am I here?' It's something I'll remember for the rest of my life."

Smeets says when Block arrived on-site that first day, she walked directly to the F2 paddock. "The first thing she says is, 'I want to be in that car as quickly as possible,'" he says and laughs at her impatience to move up from the F1 Academy car, which is essentially an F4 model with a modified rear wing.

"This is after three months in single-seater racing," Smeets says. "It's refreshing. For the moment, that is Lia's biggest strength, that she really wants this, and she wants to learn. If Jamie had 24 hours a day, seven days a week to mentor her, Lia would want to be with her constantly."

As a driver, Block has uncanny adaptability behind the wheel, an invaluable asset as she makes the extraordinary move from off-road to open-wheel racing. "Anybody can get in a car and go fast," Block says. "But you have to learn control. There's a fine line between being aggressive and destructive and once I learn where my limit is, I can pull back. It's about finding that line and staying on it."

Chadwick had a rough race herself the same weekend at the opening Indy NXT race in St. Petersburg, Florida. After a fast couple of days of practice and qualifying, she was hit on the first lap Sunday and knocked out of the race. In the second race in Birmingham, Alabama, in April, she was top-five in practice and qualifying and was running P5 in the race, but spun out on the penultimate lap of the race, which finished under caution. But it's a long season with a lot of racing left. "It's a very big year for Jamie," Smeets says. "Her next step will be determined after this year."

That could be a promotion to IndyCar, a return to Europe or a third season proving herself in Indy NXT. "Jamie has a brilliant career ahead of her," says racing great Mario Andretti, father of team owner Michael Andretti and a former F1 champion. "Her racecraft is excellent, and she makes very few mistakes. I think the next level is IndyCar, but it's up to her. Does she have that passion, that drive, that love to move in the direction of F1? If that's what she would like to do, I think she will have the opportunity."

Chadwick knows the window is narrowing. The average age of a current F1 driver is 29 and most teams are looking for younger drivers they can groom in the mold of three-time defending champion Verstappen, who made his F1 debut at 17. More than anything, she just wants a chance. "I feel like the opportunity [in F1] is still there," Chadwick says. "I've got to take that and run with it."

In Miami, Chadwick and Block will be together at a race for the first time. Over the next few days, Chadwick will be a valued voice in Block's ear when frustration and insecurity creep into her mind, when it doesn't seem like she's improving fast enough. Of all the advice coming her way, Block knows that when Chadwick speaks, it's from the perspective of a driver who's been there -- and who's won here.

"I try to listen to everything Jamie tells me," Block says. "It's really cool to have that mentor, older-sister thing with her. There aren't many of us women in motorsports, so it's about supporting each other no matter what."