One of James Vowles’s first signings as Williams Formula 1 team boss is one of seven drivers only participating in the first practice session at the Barcelona Grand Prix.
Luke Browning is in his fourth year with Williams, his first as the team’s official reserve driver, and is set for more laps than ever behind the wheel of real-world F1 cars.
He’s partaking in FP1 in both Barcelona and the Red Bull Ring, his first laps behind the wheel of the 2026 F1 car that he’s done countless hours in. He’ll also drive the 2025 Williams at Austin in between as his latest Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) outing, having already driven it at the Hungaroring and Monza earlier this year.
The 24-year-old has become a highly trusted asset for Williams, having been one of Vowles’s first signings since he became Williams F1 team boss in January 2023, with Browning’s appointment made “within a couple of weeks”.
Browning, in Formula 3 at the time, had impressed Vowles with his work as a simulator driver for the Mercedes team that Vowles had left to join Williams.
“I was James’s first signing, is probably the way to put it, so quite a pleasure to be here,” Browning told The Race.
“But it’s not an easy ride with James. He’s got the hard fist when it comes down to performance goals, and if they’re not met, then there’s no illusions that this is an easy ride.
“In this sport, it’s super difficult, and nothing is given to you for free. Ultimately, I did a really good job in Formula 3 and Formula 2 over the last couple of years with the resources, etc. that I had.
“That was shown in the results and the reason why I’m where I am.”
Browning has ample experience with the 2026 Williams in the virtual world, having done countless laps in the simulator, including support for grand prix weekends, around his maiden campaign in Super Formula this year.
Plus, with his TPC running and three F1 practice sessions already under his belt, Browning feels that when he “drives anything outside of Formula 1 now, it feels really slow”.
He added: “I feel like I’m up to speed in Formula 1 cars now, which is nice, which I don’t think I was in the last FP [Abu Dhabi 2025], for example.
“It will be interesting to see if my development in the TPC days of feeling now up to speed then correlates to FP1.”
A ‘massive advantage’ for 2026 adaptation?
There’s been a lot of talk about how complex F1’s 2026 cars are, and while Browning says they require drivers to have “more bandwidth”, they’re not necessarily too challenging to learn.
“There’s a lot of talk about it being difficult or it being very complicated, [but] the way it’s explained to me, it’s quite simple to be honest,” Browning said.
“I feel like I’m on top of it all in the simulator, and there’s nothing that I’m necessarily missing in terms of knowledge.
“I agree, maybe for the spectators or for the general public, it could be a little bit more difficult than last year, possibly, but for me, I feel in a good place with it.”
Browning has a big background in sim racing and has even been team-mates with Max Verstappen in the virtual world, racing with Verstappen before he won his first F1 world championship in 2021.
Has that sim racing know-how helped Browning overcome 2026’s complexities?
“I think it has a massive advantage,” Browning said of sim racing.
“The amount of sim racing I’ve done in the sim, we’ve got so many buttons, we set them to everything and then we play around it essentially until our heart’s content and find what’s the quickest combination.”
Why Super Formula results don’t matter
After a single season of Formula 2, Williams and Browning opted for a switch to Super Formula for 2026.
The decision was made while Browning was leading the F2 championship in mid-2025 with the knowledge he wouldn’t be able to stay on if he were champion as per the championship’s rules.
You could wait to make your plan for next season until the end of the F2 season in Abu Dhabi, but doing so would limit your options for top teams in F2 or elsewhere.
So Super Formula was picked over Browning having an Oscar Piastri Alpine 2022-type year with no racing and just the F1 reserve role and testing duties.
“I didn’t want any cobwebs on my racecraft,” Browning said.
“There’s definitely something about being race fit, isn’t there?
“Driving the car every other week and still having the pressure on of when the lights go out to perform, it’s important.”
Browning has adapted strongly to Super Formula, building an early reputation for strong comeback drives.
He climbed from 21st on the grid to finish fourth at the second race at Motegi, and he finished fourth in Suzuka’s opener, having started down in 16th.
That’s left him a respectable eighth in a championship that’s notoriously tricky for rookies.
Browning’s single-seater CV
2019: 6th in British F4
2020: 1st in British F4
2021: 3rd in ADAC F4
2022: 1st in GB3
2023: 15th in Formula 3 (Macau GP winner)
2024: 3rd in Formula 3
2025: 4th in Formula 2
2026: 8th in Super Formula*
*season ongoing
Super Formula requires far more driver input for set-up than F2 does, where the “engineering standard is of an F1 level in many ways”.
But that’s something Browning has revelled in, picking up vital experience of the kind of car feedback that’s required from all F1 drivers.
Browning is competing against some highly experienced Japanese drivers with years of knowledge of the series, as well as Formula 1 and the top level of endurance racing.
“There’s such fine margins over there that when you’ve been doing that Super Formula for so many years and experienced engineers out there, they really, really know what they’re doing,” Browning said.
“So we’re definitely playing catch-up over there, but honestly, it’s probably not too important for me this year how the results go over there.
“It’s more of just a learning curve, and we’re sacrificing qualifying laps and preparation to do set-up changes that are not necessarily going to be any helpful to performance, but are going to be helpful for me before going into Formula 1.
“For example, one change that just off the top of my head that you can’t do in Formula 2, but you can do in Super Formula is that roll-with-steer change.
“So, essentially, it’s like a geometry change where the mechanical balance goes rearwards. We can’t do that in Formula 2. It’s something we can do in Super Formula, and therefore I’m more well-prepared for [it].
“It’s one of the reasons why I can be more well-prepared, possibly doing Super Formula than I would be in Formula 2.”
‘Hopefully I can show James I’m ready’
It’s far too early to know whether Browning has a realistic route to an F1 seat in 2027.
That would need some change in Williams’s line-up with Carlos Sainz or Alex Albon exiting, and there hasn’t been any serious hint of that right now.
But Browning can continue to make his case in the meantime, that should a vacancy arise, he’s the right driver for it.
Vowles’ Williams has already shown its willingness to promote from within, as Franco Colapinto’s promotion from academy to mid-season replacement for Logan Sargeant (another academy graduate, albeit pre-Vowles) shows.
“It’s fair to say that Colapinto is doing a good job this year, and he had a great start when he was first put in the Williams car against Alex,” Browning said. “It shows that the junior programme here is performing well.
“It’s developing the drivers in the correct way, and with that, James has his belief and his faith, but I think, [it goes] without saying, it’s got to be the right time.
“I’ve got to be ready, and I don’t think anything’s going to be rushed.”
It’s not just proving himself worthy of a potential future full-time seat, but confirming that, as reserve driver, he’s ready to step in should anything unexpected sideline Sainz or Albon.
After all, teams aren’t obligated to use their reserve drivers, they can move for someone with F1 race experience.
So a convincing couple of free practice sessions this year can help show Williams that it needn’t look any further than Browning should it need a driver in the short or longer term.
“Hopefully I can show James and the people around me that I’m ready,” is Browning’s wish.