{"id":418590,"date":"2026-01-17T07:15:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T07:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/418590\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T07:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T07:15:11","slug":"mclaren-and-williams-reveal-reserve-drivers-for-f1-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/418590\/","title":{"rendered":"McLaren and Williams reveal reserve drivers for F1 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>McLaren and Williams have confirmed who will be their respective reserve drivers for the upcoming 2026 F1 season.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/f1\/teams\/mclaren\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">McLaren<\/a> announced that reigning Formula 2 champion Leonardo Fornaroli and IndyCar frontrunner Pato O\u2019Ward would serve as the reigning world champions\u2019 reserve drivers in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Fornaroli, who was signed by McLaren in December following his F2 title triumph, will \u201cundertake an intensive testing and sim programme to aid his development\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m thrilled to be stepping into an extended role with the McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team as reserve driver as part of the McLaren Driver Development Programme,&#8221; said Fornaroli.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s an exciting next step in my journey, and I\u2019m looking forward to contributing to such a successful, championship-winning team this season. A big thank you to Zak [Brown], Andrea [Stella] and\u00a0Alessandro [Alunni Bravi] for this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, O\u2019Ward will continue in the role he has fulfilled over the past two seasons.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am excited to continue in my role as reserve driver for the McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team, alongside my primary duties in the NTT IndyCar Series with Arrow McLaren,&#8221; the Mexican said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2019ve learned an incredible amount from testing and driving F1 cars over the past few years, so I am looking forward to this continued growth and development.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Williams promote Luke Browning    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/xpb_1381313_hires.jpg\"   type=\"image\/jpeg\" alt=\"Browning took part in three FP1s with Williams in 2025\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.5\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Browning took part in three FP1s with Williams in 2025<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/f1\/teams\/mclaren\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Williams<\/a> then announced on Friday that Luke Browning has been promoted to become the team\u2019s reserve driver this season.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Officially, Williams did not previously have a named reserve driver, but could call upon the services of Mercedes\u2019 reserves if needed as part of their engine deal. Last year that was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/f1\/racer\/2\/valtteri-bottas\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Valtteri Bottas<\/a>, who has since joined <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/f1\/teams\/cadillac\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cadillac<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Browning, who finished third in Formula 3 in 2024 and fourth in F2 in 2025, participated in three F1 practice sessions with Williams last season.<\/p>\n<p>The 24-year-old Briton will dovetail his new commitment alongside a rookie season in Japan\u2019s Super Formula.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m incredibly excited to be stepping up as Reserve Driver with Atlassian Williams F1 Team this year,\u201d Browning said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Academy has been instrumental in my growth, supporting me through both Formula 3 and Formula 2 while giving me the chance to get up to speed with modern F1 machinery through testing and FP1 sessions.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I look forward to working alongside Alex [Albon] and Carlos [Sainz] to drive the team forward in this new era for Formula 1.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our F1 Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren and Williams have confirmed who will be their respective reserve drivers for the upcoming 2026 F1 season.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,817,913,806,805,803,804,85,819],"class_list":{"0":"post-418590","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-mclaren","12":"tag-motor","13":"tag-motor-sports","14":"tag-motosport","15":"tag-motosports","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-williams"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}