The ‘motivation’ of a chance to drive for Williams in Formula 1 is ‘super exciting’ for Luke Browning, as their academy talent fights to win the Formula 3 title this season.
One win from the first four races of the feeder series campaign has helped Browning to lead the early standings. The 22-year-old took the Feature race victory at the Bahrain GP round in Sakhir. He also missed out on another podium at the Australian GP round by 0.829 seconds.
Browning handed Hitech their first win of the 2024 Formula 3 season with his first win in the series, too. The Cheshire native only made one podium during his rookie campaign last year. He took P2 in the Sprint race at the Spanish GP, en route to 15th place in the championship.
Williams junior Luke Browning won his first F3 race at the Bahrain GP
A gear selection issue at the start of the F3 Bahrain GP Feature race denied pole-sitter Dino Beganovic his chance to defend from Browning, who started in P2. Christian Mansell would also only threaten to challenge the Williams Driver Academy talent for the win over 22 laps.
Ferrari junior Beganovic would take his maiden victory in the F3 Australian GP Feature race as Browning narrowly missed out on the podium. The Briton lost to Alpine Academy talent Gabriele Mini by under a second after a late battle for the final rostrum spot in Melbourne.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Williams Racing from team principal to Mercedes relationship
The 12 points for finishing in fourth were enough to keep 2023 Macau GP winner Browning atop the F3 standings. He heads Trident driver Leonardo Fornaroli on count back of wins on 37 points. Fornaroli is yet to win a race with a best finish of P2 in the Australia Feature race.
Luke Browning is ‘super excited’ by a potential future F1 drive
Browning now admits that an impressive Formula 3 season could help him to, one day, drive for Williams in Formula 1. The 2022 GB3 Championship and Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award winner signed with the Grove team’s junior driver programme in April 2023.
“Obviously, it’s a massive privilege for me to be on the Williams Driver Academy,” Browning has told Speedcafe. “I’ve been on both sides of the pond, so it was only last year that I got picked up by Williams.
“The benefits that I can say for being on it, it’s just the preparation, it’s huge. Having the ability to go into the simulator, chat with F1 engineers, even going to watch on the race weekend, sometimes heading over to the F1 side of it and seeing really what is possible.
“That gives you an added motivation that, hey, look, if I do a really good job in F3 and Formula 2 in the future, this is what I could be driving. That, for me, is super exciting. That’s what gives me motivation.”
The post ‘Super exciting’: ‘Motivation’ of chance to drive for Williams in F2 thrills 22-y/o prospect appeared first on F1 Oversteer.