{"id":405416,"date":"2026-01-12T22:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T22:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/405416\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T22:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T22:40:10","slug":"williams-confirm-f2-race-winner-victor-martins-as-test-and-development-driver-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/405416\/","title":{"rendered":"Williams confirm F2 race winner Victor Martins as test and development driver for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">Williams have announced that their Driver Academy graduate, Victor Martins, will step into a new role as Test and Development Driver for the 2026 season, dovetailing those Formula 1 duties with a drive in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Alpine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">French racer Martins, 24, joined Williams\u2019 Driver Academy at the start of 2025, having previously won the Formula Renault Eurocup series in 2020, the FIA Formula 3 title in 2022 and then finished as top rookie in the 2023 FIA Formula 2 season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">He secured multiple race wins and podium finishes across his three F2 campaigns with ART Grand Prix, most recently taking victory in the 2025 Qatar Feature Race.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">Martins will now graduate to a Test and Development Driver role at <a class=\"text-brand-hot-red underline decoration-1 hover:decoration-[3px]\" data-f1rd-a7s-click=\"rich_text_atom_click\" data-f1rd-a7s-context=\"eyJhY3Rpb25UeXBlIjoid2lsbGlhbXNfbGlua19jbGlja2VkIiwiY2xpY2tUZXh0Ijp0cnVlLCJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZm9ybXVsYTEuY29tL2VuL3RlYW1zL3dpbGxpYW1zIiwicGF0aFR5cGUiOiJpbnRlcm5hbCJ9\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/teams\/williams\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Williams<\/a> alongside Oliver Turvey and Harrison Scott, where he will \u2013 as per a press release \u2013 \u201cplay a crucial role in advancing the team\u2019s development programmes to support our F1 drivers <a class=\"text-brand-hot-red underline decoration-1 hover:decoration-[3px]\" data-f1rd-a7s-click=\"rich_text_atom_click\" data-f1rd-a7s-context=\"eyJhY3Rpb25UeXBlIjoiYWxleF9hbGJvbl9saW5rX2NsaWNrZWQiLCJjbGlja1RleHQiOnRydWUsInBhdGgiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5mb3JtdWxhMS5jb20vZW4vZHJpdmVycy9hbGV4YW5kZXItYWxib24iLCJwYXRoVHlwZSI6ImludGVybmFsIn0=\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/drivers\/alexander-albon\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alex Albon<\/a> and <a class=\"text-brand-hot-red underline decoration-1 hover:decoration-[3px]\" data-f1rd-a7s-click=\"rich_text_atom_click\" data-f1rd-a7s-context=\"eyJhY3Rpb25UeXBlIjoiY2FybG9zX3NhaW56X2xpbmtfY2xpY2tlZCIsImNsaWNrVGV4dCI6dHJ1ZSwicGF0aCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmZvcm11bGExLmNvbS9lbi9kcml2ZXJzL2Nhcmxvcy1zYWlueiIsInBhdGhUeXBlIjoiaW50ZXJuYWwifQ==\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/drivers\/carlos-sainz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Carlos Sainz<\/a> as the sport enters an unprecedented change in technical regulations\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">Duties will include refining Williams\u2019 state-of-the-art driver-in-loop (DIL) simulator, which came online at the end of 2025, while he will also be involved in developing a dedicated Driver Academy DIL to support young talent on their path to F1.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">\u201cWilliams is an iconic team with an incredible history and I\u2019m excited to be part of the project to bring this team back to the front of the grid,\u201d said Martins, who made his F1 practice debut with the Grove-based squad <a class=\"text-brand-hot-red underline decoration-1 hover:decoration-[3px]\" data-f1rd-a7s-click=\"rich_text_atom_click\" data-f1rd-a7s-context=\"eyJhY3Rpb25UeXBlIjoiYXRfbGFzdF95ZWFy4oCZc19zcGFuaXNoX2dyYW5kX3ByaXhfbGlua19jbGlja2VkIiwiY2xpY2tUZXh0Ijp0cnVlLCJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZm9ybXVsYTEuY29tL2VuL2xhdGVzdC9hcnRpY2xlL3ZpY3Rvci1tYXJ0aW5zLXRvLW1ha2UtZjEtd2Vla2VuZC1kZWJ1dC1hcy13aWxsaWFtcy1jb25maXJtLWYyLXJhY2VyLWZvci1mcDEuN2RUaGtCcVpXWlpjdXNjckFhY0dxaiIsInBhdGhUeXBlIjoiaW50ZXJuYWwifQ==\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/latest\/article\/victor-martins-to-make-f1-weekend-debut-as-williams-confirm-f2-racer-for-fp1.7dThkBqZWZZcuscrAacGqj\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">at last year\u2019s Spanish Grand Prix<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">\u201cI\u2019ve already had experience working with Alex and Carlos during race weekends, and I\u2019m looking forward to continuing this work with the team in 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">\u201cThanks to [Team Principal] James Vowles, Sven [Smeets, Sporting Director] and everyone at Williams for the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">Smeets added: \u201c[Victor] is a talented driver who has consistently given invaluable guidance and feedback to the team, improving our on-track performance and supporting Alex and Carlos throughout the 2025 season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">\u201cHis recent experience driving the FW47 in Barcelona FP1 and supporting the TPC (Testing of Previous Cars) programme gives him the real-world context to make real impact on the development of the FW48 and future car programmes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Williams have announced that their Driver Academy graduate, Victor Martins, will step into a new role as Test&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-405416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}