{"id":419794,"date":"2026-01-17T20:36:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T20:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/419794\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T20:36:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T20:36:25","slug":"williams-hands-driver-promotion-to-complete-2026-f1-driver-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/419794\/","title":{"rendered":"Williams hands driver promotion to complete 2026 F1 driver-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Williams<\/a> has promoted its Driver Academy star and Super Formula debutant Luke Browning to the role of reserve driver for the upcoming Formula 1<\/a> campaign.<\/p>\n

The British youngster shone for Hitech in Formula 2 last season, scoring one victory and a further eight podiums, finishing fourth in the Drivers\u2019 standings.<\/p>\n

Browning was also afforded three FP1 outings for the Grove-based squad<\/a>, as the 23-year-old\u2019s stock continued to rise.<\/p>\n

But instead of another year in F2, Browning has been announced as one of Kondo Racing\u2019s two drivers in the 2026 instalment of the Japanese Super Formula series.<\/p>\n

This will dovetail with his reserve duties with Williams, whose Team Principal James Vowles said his behind-the-scenes commitment has been \u201cinvaluable\u201d in the team\u2019s preparations for the season ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a proud moment to see Luke stepping into the Reserve Driver role from 2026,\u201d he said. \u201cHe has made immense progress since he joined the Academy in 2023 and has supported the team\u2019s journey back to the front of the grid through his involvement in simulator and FP1 work, which has been invaluable as we enter this new era of regulations. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis Super Formula campaign will allow him to gain more on-track experience and continue his growth as a driver, and we look forward to seeing him back on track as he enters this next stage of his racing career.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Luke Browning completed three FP1 outings for Williams in 2025<\/p>\n

Browning ready for \u2018complete new challenge\u2019<\/p>\n

Browning said he was keen to make the next step in his career, and heralded the \u201ccompletely new challenge\u201d of Super Formula, where he is expected to be team-mates with ex-Alpine driver Jack Doohan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m incredibly excited to be stepping up as Reserve Driver with Atlassian Williams F1 Team this year,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\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

\u201cI look forward to working alongside Alex and Carlos to drive the team forward in this new era for Formula 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m also happy to confirm that 2026 will be my rookie season in Super Formula. This will be a completely new challenge, and I\u2019m looking forward to getting stuck in! <\/p>\n

\u201cAs my next step up towards a full-time Formula 1 seat, this gives me another chance to show how I\u2019ve developed on track and continue to build my skills in a new environment and culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Browning will play a key role with Williams, which, as he told in a recent exclusive interview with Motorsport Week, believes is on track for a continued resurgence, saying \u201ceveryone\u2019s getting behind the underdog story of we can, we can do this. And yeah, we\u2019re not lacking anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE \u2013 Exclusive: Luke Browning revelling in the \u2018amazing process\u2019 of Williams academy role<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Williams has promoted its Driver Academy star and Super Formula debutant Luke Browning to the role of reserve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,221121,817,806,805,803,804,85,819],"class_list":{"0":"post-419794","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-browning","11":"tag-f1","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\/419794","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=419794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}