Motorsport Week spoke to Williams Academy Driver Luke Browning shortly after his accomplished debut in the FIA Formula 2 Championship in Azerbaijan to discuss his career to date and aspirations for the 2025 season and beyond.
Many heads have turned due to the exploits of Franco Colapinto, Williams’ Academy prospect excelling in Formula 1 after his mid-season debut at Monza. The future is clearly bright for Colapinto, and the strength of Williams’ Academy is evident through the Argentine’s results. Next in line on the Williams pipeline is rising star Luke Browning.
How Luke Browning attracted the interest of Williams
Browning’s rise in single-seaters has been littered with success. The Briton secured the British F4 title in 2020 and backed it up with title success in GB3 during his 2022 campaign. A Williams Academy deal came calling in 2023 as he embarked on his maiden season with Hitech in the FIA Formula 3 World Championship. Browning ended 2023 by winning the world-famous Macau Grand Prix, a race won by Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and David Coulthard in years gone by.
His rise through the junior ladder hasn’t gone unnoticed and Browning won the coveted Autosport Young Driver Award in 2022 and turned heads during his prize-winning test in the Aston Martin AMR21 at Silverstone a year later.
Winning that award was key to Browning’s career, attracting Williams’ interest.
“I think having the opportunity to go against, I mean, such big names now like Ollie Bearman and Louis Foster’s [who has] just won the Indy NXT title, to win it against those guys really put my name out there and showed to Williams that, ‘hey, you can do a good job,'” Browning told Motorsport Week. “I think also the F1 test I managed to get, it was super successful. I think that’s really what attracted what attracted Williams.”
Oliver Oakes is crucial to Luke Browning’s success
Browning credits Hitech, and its founder Oliver Oakes, who manages his career, as key to advancing his motorsport journey.
“The biggest thing is being a part of Hitech. Ollie Oakes is obviously a massive name in the paddock now being a Team Principal of Alpine and has been my manager for a few years. He’s been looking after me and he’s been a massive, massive help to my career. I think without him, it wouldn’t be possible. He’s the one that picked me up and said, ‘hey, I think this kid’s got something’.”
Being a part of the Williams Academy is a massive boost for Browning, who lives just five minutes from the F1 team’s Grove headquarters.
“I’m in when I’m called upon to do simulator work,” Browning explained. “It’s just awesome being close by. I’ve got the opportunity to learn from experienced engineers and I think the main thing is just being in and around the team. You know, I go to the gym every day in the team and just experience what a Formula 1 team is like. For a 22-year-old, that’s so impressive. Walking into the Williams factory and going, ‘hey, this could be a focus of me over many years’ time’. It’s quite exciting, really. You see everyone, so many people working towards a combined goal and it’s really interesting to see it from a slightly outside perspective.”
Through Williams, Browning has been able to develop on the world stage and after a year finding his feet on new circuits and a new car in his 2023 F3 campaign, the Briton pushed on in 2024.
Browning ‘didn’t achieve’ F3 title goal
Browning burst out of the starting blocks with victory in the 2024 F3 season opener at Bahrain and maintained a title challenge through to the final round of the year, just coming up short at the final hurdle. Still, two wins, three podiums and third in the championship is a fine result.
Moreover, Browning’s exploits granted him a mid-season F2 debut at Baku with Art Grand Prix. So, was the F3 campaign a case of mission accomplished? Not quite.
“I’m only here to win, to be honest. That’s what I wanted to do this year. That was the goal. We didn’t achieve it, to be truthful. We had the most pole positions. We were so, so fast in the races. There were races that we dominated in the middle of the year. I think if you look at it, if Silverstone had gone the other way, we’d have won the championship.
“If, if, if, if, if. What [Leonardo] Fornaroli did on [the] last lap to clinch the title was fantastic and he deserved it. He was the deserving champion. He did a great job and it just shows how tight this year is. Five drivers could win it coming into the last round. I think it was the highest-performing second-year driver season ever in Formula 3. We had the highest points total over the top four drivers. It was naturally going to be really tight.
“You didn’t really have anyone dominating and getting wins. I was really proud of the middle of the year where we had back-to-back pole positions. In Bahrain, we came out and made a statement in the first race. If I hadn’t crashed in Monaco, we could have been on pole and that would have won the race. But, no, I’m happy with the result. I’m happy with third. Ultimately, it’s given me the super licence points I need for F1 free practice if it’s possible. I’m one step closer and it’s given me the ability to move up.”
Stepping up to F2
Browning made an accomplished F2 debut at Baku, a track he’d never raced at before. After finishing 11th in the Sprint, Browning got his maiden F2 points in the Feature race with seventh, showing he’s well adept at stepping up to the next level.
“It was incredible, really. I got a call on Sunday after Monza that said, ‘right, next week you’re in Baku racing Formula 2’. So, yeah, a bit of a shock. But a really welcome shock. I love the opportunity to hop into something having never driven it. I’d never driven an F2 car. I’d never tested anything. I’d done nothing. So I was getting into it going, ‘OK, brand new team, brand new car, it’s going to be difficult’. But I think we made the most out of it. P7 in the feature race in my first race in F2. I’m happy. And I think it could have been a lot better.”
Browning has two more rounds with ART GP in 2024, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, to continue his F2 education in preparation for an expected full campaign at his spiritual home, Hitech.
Williams’ British prospect is well aware of the peril facing F2 drivers on their quest to reach F1 and how those who excel straight away are given preferential treatment. As a result, Browning’s target in 2025 is simple, to go all in for the F2 title.
“Formula 2, you’ve got one year to do it, is the way that I look at it. You look at the second and third-year drivers that have won the championship and they’ve just not been given the opportunities. For me, the goal is to win it in the first year and I’ll be well prepared for it. I’ll have the correct amount of testing. I’ve had three rounds prior before going into the start of the season. I’m in the best place I could be. And I’m lucky to be surrounded by people that are supporting me. So the goal at the moment is to learn as much off of ART as I can.”
Luke Browning targeting F1 with Williams
Browning has his mind on one thing, to succeed as much as possible to reach F1 as soon as possible. Colapinto has benefitted from Williams’ support, scoring points in just his second Grand Prix and giving team-mate Alex Albon a run for his money. Browning can’t help but be encouraged by the Argentine’s example.
“What’s fantastic is sometimes the name of rookies has been tarred a little bit over the past four or five years, whatever it may be. And now it’s showing that the team principals are really getting into the rookies. You’re seeing rookies get in and be within a tenth of Albon. That’s crazy, you know. So it shows that it’s possible. What’s really nice is that Williams takes the leap to bring the junior drivers through. James [Vowles] has said he wants to bring them from his own stable, which is super nice. I feel like that. I feel nurtured. I feel supported. And I feel like what Williams is doing is making us well-prepared. So I can understand why Colopinto has done so well getting in for the first time and I’d hope to do the same.”
There’s talk that Colapinto could be loaned by a rival team to continue his F1 journey and with Oakes in his corner, Browning potentially has Alpine as a route into F1 too. However, Browning is clear on the team he wants to make his F1 debut with.
“Williams is my sole focus. What’s amazing is I feel nurtured, and the opportunity will come. There’s no harm with having a year as a reserve driver and doing a year of testing before hopping in. I think the main thing is to make sure that when you get in, you’re ready and you can do it. That’s what Colapinto’s acclimatised so well to, hopping in and doing it. It just shows the standard of the Formula 2 grid at the moment. I mean, he was P6 in Formula 2 and he’s gone in and is doing that. It shows what the other drivers on the grid would do if they were getting into a Formula 1 car. Look at, for example, [Kimi] Antonelli. Outside the top-10 in the first half of his year in the championship and he’s signed for Mercedes. It shows that as long as you’re performing in that Formula 1 car and you’ve got the super licence points, there are possibilities.”
If Browning’s career so far is anything to go by, if allowed to test with Williams or hop into the team’s 2025 car during a free practice session, he too can show he’s ready to join the Grand Prix elite.
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