{"id":725472,"date":"2026-06-09T16:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T16:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/725472\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T16:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T16:07:12","slug":"luke-browning-given-williams-practice-outings-leonardo-fornaroli-set-for-f1-debut-for-mclaren-in-barcelona-fp1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/725472\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke Browning given Williams practice outings, Leonardo Fornaroli set for F1 debut for McLaren in Barcelona FP1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Williams<\/a> Formula 1 reserve driver Luke Browning<\/a> will make two FP1 outings at the\u00a0Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix and Austrian Grand Prix later this month, while F2 champion Leonardo Fornaroli will make his debut for McLaren in Barcelona first practice.<\/p>\n

Browning, who is dovetailing his Williams role with a rookie campaign in Super Formula this year, will step into Alex\u00a0Albon<\/a>\u2019s FW48 in Barcelona this weekend for first practice and then Carlos Sainz<\/a>\u2019s F1 car at the Red Bull Ring later this month.<\/p>\n

It will mark the British driver\u2019s first outing in the new generation F1 cars, having made four previous FP1 outings for Williams across 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t wait to get behind the wheel of the FW48 for the first time, and to have two opportunities to experience the car first-hand in the European season makes it even more special,\u201d Browning said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve been working hard to prepare so that I can make the most of these sessions and help the team plan and prepare for the race weekends ahead. I\u2019m incredibly thankful to everyone at\u00a0Atlassian Williams F1 Team for their continued trust and support, and I can\u2019t wait to get out on track.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams sporting director Sven\u00a0Smeets sees the FP1 outings as a vital development opportunity both for the driver and the team when Browning is called on for simulator work.<\/p>\n

\"Luke <\/p>\n

Luke Browning, Williams, AJ Henning, Ethan Robinson<\/p>\n

Photo by: Maya Dehlin Spach \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cLuke continues to prove himself as a valuable part of the team, both through his simulator work and his performances on track,\u201d\u00a0Smeets said. \u201cGiving him his first opportunity to get behind the wheel of the FW48 across two race weekends is an important step in his development and a natural progression.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a talented group of young drivers in the Williams F1 Team Driver Academy, and we\u2019re pleased to continue providing opportunities like this to support drivers\u2019 progression and development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile at McLaren, Fornaroli will make his F1 debut as he is handed a first FP1 outing in Barcelona. The 2025 F2 champion will hop into Lando Norris’s MCL40 F1 car.<\/p>\n

Each F1 team must run rookies in four FP1 sessions per season and due to the disrupted start to the season and the new regulations, a minimal number of rookie outings have been completed so far.<\/p>\n

Technically, Racing Bulls<\/a> has fulfilled two of its four rookie FP1 sessions already, given\u00a0Arvid Lindblad<\/a> qualified for those in Australia and China at the start of the season as the only rookie on the grid this year.<\/p>\n

Aston Martin put\u00a0Jak Crawford<\/a> into Fernando Alonso<\/a>\u2019s car for first practice at the Japanese GP, but so far no other FP1 rookie outings have been registered.<\/p>\n

The high number of sprint race events have meant teams did not opt to run rookies in the only practice session in China, Miami and Canada, while Monaco isn\u2019t favoured for rookie running given the extra challenges the Monte-Carlo circuit poses with the need to give drivers as much practice as possible to build up speed before qualifying.<\/p>\n

The Bahrain and Saudi Arabian GPs were likely to be a decent options for FP1 outings given they were not sprint events, but the postponement of both rounds meant teams were denied that opportunity.<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Williams Formula 1 reserve driver Luke Browning will make two FP1 outings at the\u00a0Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix and Austrian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,257436,576,577,261910,102174,261909,249565,82,1196],"class_list":["post-725472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-f1-monaco-grand-prix","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-leonardo-fornaroli-set-for-f1-debut-for-mclaren-in-barcelona-fp1","tag-luke-browning","tag-luke-browning-given-williams-practice-outings","tag-monaco-gp","tag-sports","tag-williams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725472","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=725472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}