Racing
© Jonathan Borba
Williams will hand reserve driver Luke Browning two Formula 1 practice outings in the FW48 over the next two race weekends, with the Briton set to replace Alex Albon in FP1 at the Spanish Grand Prix and Carlos Sainz in the same session at the Austrian Grand Prix.
The appearances matter on two fronts for Williams. They will be Browning’s first real-world running in the team’s 2026 car under Formula 1’s new rules, and they will cover half of the squad’s four mandatory rookie FP1 sessions for the season. Under the regulations, each full-time driver must give up two practice sessions to a rookie, defined as a driver who has started no more than two Grands Prix.
For Browning, 24, the timing also brings a rare opening. Speaking to RacingNews365 ahead of the announcement, Williams Formula 1 reserve driver Luke Browning said the regulation reset could help newcomers break into a car that even established drivers are still learning. “I think it's super difficult. The new car, clearly, a lot of the experienced guys have been struggling with it. Yet the really exciting part for me is that it's a clean slate,” he said.
He added that the challenge differs from stepping into a mature rules cycle. “It's quite exciting because we're not having to unlearn anything or unlearn braking points,” Browning said.
Williams is framing the sessions as more than a compliance exercise. Browning said one of the biggest gains will come when the team compares his on-track feedback with simulator work back at Grove. In comments to Express Sport, he said he was “massively” excited by that process, adding: “Probably the thing that I'm most excited for, is getting back to the factory after doing the FP1 to do the correlation on the sim, to see how close it has been and seeing if I can help develop.”
That role has become central to his place in the team. Browning was named Williams reserve driver at the start of the season after joining the Williams Driver Academy in 2023. Last year he finished fourth in Formula 2 with Hitech GP, scoring nine podiums including a Feature Race win at Monza, and this season he has moved into Super Formula with Team Kondo Racing.
Williams Sporting Director Sven Smeets said in the team’s announcement that Browning “continues to prove himself as a valuable part of the team, both through his simulator work and his performances on track.” Smeets said giving him his first chance in the FW48 across two race weekends was “an important step in his development and a natural progression.”
Browning has already appeared in official F1 practice for Williams, but these runs move him into the current car for the first time and give the team a useful early chunk of its rookie-session requirement while expanding the feedback loop between simulator and track at a crucial stage of the new regulations.