Williams gives Browning its final two rookie practice sessions
Luke Browning will take Alex Albon’s Williams for opening practice in Mexico and Carlos Sainz’s car in Brazil. The reserve driver will thereby complete all four of the team’s mandatory rookie sessions this season. His return also brings a first track encounter with the lighter FW48 chassis introduced at Baku, feeding his simulator work.
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Browning takes Albon’s car in Mexico
Atlassian Williams F1 Team, the British Formula 1 team, has assigned reserve driver Luke Browning to opening practice at both the Mexican and Brazilian Grands Prix. In Mexico he will drive Alex Albon’s FW48. Motorsport outlet GRANDE PRÊMIO independently confirmed that part of the arrangement, reporting that Browning would take Albon’s car in the first Friday practice session as part of the young-driver programme.[1], [2]
For the Brazil session, Browning will take over Carlos Sainz’s car. These are Williams’ final two mandatory rookie practice sessions of the season. Browning has also driven its earlier two, so the same driver will complete all four of the team’s required appearances. His most recent opening-practice outing came at the Italian Grand Prix, before this newly announced pair of opportunities.[1]
The lighter FW48 becomes part of his track work
Williams introduced a lighter chassis at Baku. Browning has not driven the FW48 since that upgrade, making the coming outings his first direct experience of the revised package. He said the sessions would let him build his understanding of the car while bringing data and feedback back to Grove. The team plans to feed the knowledge from those track laps into his simulator work.[1]
Sporting director Sven Smeets said using one driver across all four rookie sessions helps Williams relate the information gathered on track to its simulator work. He described the two further race-weekend outings as a step in Browning’s development. The assignment therefore continues the existing arrangement with the reserve rather than introducing a different academy driver for the closing practice opportunities.[1]
Reserve duties run alongside racing in Japan
Browning is a member of the Williams Driver Academy and serves as the team’s reserve in 2026. Alongside that role, he races for Team Kondo Racing in Super Formula, Japan’s leading single-seater series. His Williams duties extend beyond being available at Grands Prix: they include analysing data and helping develop the car in the simulator. The Mexico and Brazil practice sessions add running in the race car to that programme.[1]
