Victor Martins has joined the Williams Racing Driver Academy following his recent exit from Alpine’s counterpart.
Martins had been part of the Enstone-based programme in 2018-19, then from 2021-24, with a one-year hiatus when he narrowly lost the 2019 Formula Renault Eurocup title – and his spot in the academy – to Oscar Piastri.
Although he was eventually crowned in FR Eurocup, as well as 2022 Formula 3 champion, before being the highest-placed rookie in the 2023 F2 season, Martins failed to capitalise on his experience last year; his sophomore F2 season yielded just seventh position amid misfortune compounded by driving errors.
Martins subsequently left Alpine’s academy. “Let’s say my goal and their goal were not on the same line,” the 23-year-old Frenchman succinctly explained earlier this month.
Martins’ new role at Williams will involve “training and guidance to continue refining his skills on and off the racetrack”. He will also get track time at the wheel of the team’s FW45 car from the 2023 F1 season as early as this weekend in Monza, alongside Luke Browning – another Williams junior.
F2 driver Victor Martins
Photo by: Getty Images
“We’re thrilled to welcome Victor to the Williams Racing Driver Academy,” sporting director Sven Smeets said. “He has repeatedly demonstrated that he is a talented driver who is capable of winning championships. We will continue to support Victor’s development on and off the track as part of the Academy and look forward to working with him in 2025.”
“This is a new chapter for me, but my goal remains the same – to push myself to the limit, both as a person and as a racing driver, and to make it to Formula 1,” Martins added. “Williams is an iconic team with an incredible history, and I’m confident this is the best place to be to help me achieve my goals.
“This year, I’ll put all my focus into winning the Formula 2 drivers’ championship with ART Grand Prix and maximising this opportunity with the Driver Academy both on and off the track. I look forward to working with everyone at Williams as we embark on this new journey together.”
Martins’ goal of reaching F1 sounds like a tall order at the moment, with the influx of precocious rookies on the F1 grid seemingly reducing opportunities further down the line, especially for third-year F2 drivers.
Williams does have a history of taking its proteges all the way to F1. Lance Stroll, Nicholas Latifi, Jack Aitken, Logan Sargeant and Franco Colapinto were all given a chance in the world championship, however short-lived it was for some of them.
In this article
Ben Vinel
Formula 1
FIA F2
Victor Martins
Williams
Alpine
Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics
Victor Martins has joined the Williams Racing Driver Academy following his recent exit from Alpine’s counterpart.
Martins had been part of the Enstone-based program in 2018-19, then from 2021-24, with a one-year hiatus when he narrowly lost the 2019 Formula Renault Eurocup title – and his spot in the academy – to Oscar Piastri.
Although he was eventually crowned in FR Eurocup as well as Formula 3 before being the highest-placed rookie in the 2023 F2 season, Martins failed to capitalise on his experience last year; his sophomore F2 season yielded just seventh position amid misfortune compounded by driving errors.
Martins subsequently left Alpine’s academy. “Let’s say my goal and their goal were not on the same line,” the 23-year-old Frenchman succinctly explained earlier this month.
Martins’ new role at Williams will involve “training and guidance to continue refining his skills on and off the racetrack”. He will also get track time at the wheel of the team’s FW45 car from the 2023 F1 season as early as this weekend in Monza, alongside Luke Browning – another Williams junior.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Victor to the Williams Racing Driver Academy,” sporting director Sven Smeets said. “He has repeatedly demonstrated that he is a talented driver who is capable of winning championships. We will continue to support Victor’s development on and off the track as part of the Academy and look forward to working with him in 2025.”
“This is a new chapter for me, but my goal remains the same – to push myself to the limit, both as a person and as a racing driver, and to make it to Formula 1,” Martins added. “Williams is an iconic team with an incredible history, and I’m confident this is the best place to be to help me achieve my goals.
“This year, I’ll put all my focus into winning the Formula 2 drivers’ championship with ART Grand Prix and maximising this opportunity with the Driver Academy both on and off the track. I look forward to working with everyone at Williams as we embark on this new journey together.”
Martins’ goal of reaching F1 sounds like a tall order at the moment, with the influx of precocious rookies on the F1 grid seemingly reducing opportunities further down the line, especially for third-year F2 drivers.
Williams does have a history of taking its proteges all the way to F1. Lance Stroll, Nicholas Latifi, Jack Aitken, Logan Sargeant and Franco Colapinto were all given a chance in the world championship, however short-lived it was for some of them.
In this article
Ben Vinel
Formula 1
FIA F2
Victor Martins
Williams
Alpine
Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics
Alpine has signed Kush Maini as a test and reserve driver for the 2025 Formula 1 season.
Maini has been part of the Alpine Academy since October 2023 and completed his second Formula 2 campaign with the Invicta outfit in 2024, taking one victory – his first in any series since the 2020 British F3 campaign – on his way to 13th in the standings. He has moved to DAMS for the 2025 season.
Read Also:
As part of his new deal with the Enstone-based squad, the Indian driver will partake in simulator work while conducting track testing with older cars to gain F1 experience himself, via the Testing of Previous Cars rules.
“I am looking forward to getting more track time in Formula 1 machinery in this role and to build on what I have already learned with the team in 2024,” Maini said. “I’m very excited to begin the role as soon as possible but for now my focus is on my third season in Formula 2 kicking off this weekend in Australia.”
Alpine Academy director Julian Rouse added: “Kush has impressed the team across his TPC performances and Formula 2 results whilst we have been working with him and we expect he will continue to do so in 2025. His wider role allows us to further expand our pool of driving talent who can provide support and resource to the whole team during the busy season.”
Kush Maini on the podium in Jeddah, alongside Enzo Fittipaldi and Dennis Hauger
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Alpine certainly enjoys much depth in terms of ‘third drivers’, should any ill befall regulars Pierre Gasly and Jack Doohan.
The team has signed three drivers to “test and reserve driver” deals, which includes Maini, current Toyota Hypercar racer Ryo Hirakawa, and Franco Colapinto, who is widely rumored to be an immediate threat to Doohan’s seat. Meanwhile, former Mercedes junior Paul Aron has been hired as merely a “reserve driver”.
All four drivers are set to participate in Alpine’s Testing of Previous Cars programme, with Hirakawa already announced as a Free Practice 1 driver at the Japanese Grand Prix, helping the team fulfill the regulatory rookie requirements.
Previously asked how the outfit was going to organise things around its first three reserve drivers, team principal Oliver Oakes replied: “They’re all going to share a room. No, I’m joking!
Read Also:
“They’ve got a pretty busy year. All three of them are doing TPC testing, all three are doing a bit of operations support, and they’re all attending a race.”
As to how much F1 testing each of them will get, Oakes said: “I don’t know off my head. I think there’s a little bit of a split, because obviously Franco has done a load of grands prix, Paul Aron hasn’t done anything and Ryo’s done probably a bit of everything, so there is a bit of a balance there.”
Additional reporting by Oleg Karpov
In this article
Ben Vinel
Formula 1
FIA F2
Ryo Hirakawa
Kush Maini
Franco Colapinto
Paul Aron
Alpine
Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics
Fairytales do happen, if you look hard enough. From Junior Saloons in a humble Citroen Saxo in 2016, no one could have guessed that, come December 2024, Luke Browning would be behind the wheel of a Williams Formula 1 car in free practice at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
He has arrived at that point through not only sheer determination against the financial odds, but by being one of the most exciting young British talents around – as evidenced by his winning the 2022 Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award. It means that, as well as his role as a Williams protege, Browning undertakes his first full season in Formula 2 this year with Hitech GP – the same team with which he won the 2022 GB3 crown and had a near-miss in the fight for F3 honours last year.
Browning has long been way underfunded compared to his peers, but… “The eyes are out there from junior programmes and people at the BRDC,” he stresses down a phone line from a BRDC training camp on Lanzarote. “There’s a lot of people constantly looking for talent, and if you’ve got it, work hard enough, train hard enough and do enough time on the sim… The sim I think now is just a fantastic way to get into it. If you’re at the real high level of sim Esports, it’s possible for that to transfer over to real life. The goal is not solely F1, but I think it’s possible to become a professional racing driver from the background I’ve come from.”
Browning credits the faith of Richardson Racing, which ran him in Ginetta Junior in 2017-18 and his rookie British F4 campaign in 2019, and Fortec Motorsport, with which he dramatically claimed the F4 crown in 2020 against much-better-funded opposition. “I’ve been very, very lucky to meet and make the most of the people around me,” he acknowledges.
“The main thing was just listening, taking in as much information as I can, because coming from the background I do I’ve not had the ability to do the test days, I wasn’t the most prepared, I wasn’t the most car-fit. But, if you surround yourself with people that are intelligent and know the sport really well, it is possible. And that’s exactly what I did.
“I was very lucky to almost stumble upon these people that just pushed me in the right direction each time. It started out in Richardson Racing, especially with the incredible driver coach I had there, Kieran Vernon [an ex-Formula Palmer Audi and FRenault BARC ace], and Andy Richardson [team boss] especially. They helped me out an incredible amount. Kieran built my foundations, before I then got picked up by Richard Dutton and the absolute powerhouse of Fortec – what a team and they absolutely propelled me onto the next step in F4.”
Browning has come a long way from his days racing a Junior Saloons Saxo in 2016
And it’s with the Hitech team of new Alpine F1 chief Oliver Oakes that Browning has gone from strength to strength: “Suddenly getting called into Hitech was just the best thing that happened to my career. Oli has now been given the opportunity to be Alpine principal, but he’s just a fantastic manager. I can’t speak highly enough about Oli to be honest. I’m just incredibly grateful to him.”
In between Hitech and Fortec, a year in German F4 in 2021 with the US Racing team of former Mercedes DTM chief Gerhard Ungar and Ralf Schumacher provided an education that had previously not been possible. “It was a tough thing to do, but a fantastic learning experience,” says Browning, who finished third in a series won by a certain Ollie Bearman. “It was my first time racing abroad – I didn’t do any European karting, I didn’t know what that European lifestyle was like. I really thank Gerhard for that year – he took me on like a son.”
“It was a bit of a funny feeling sat in the F1 car for the first time in FP. It was almost a feeling of relief. It’s not that I’d made it, it’s that it was happening and it’s possible now” Luke Browning
After the F3 season had finished, Browning contested the final three F2 rounds of 2024 with ART Grand Prix. First time out in Baku he certainly opened some eyes: “That was fantastic, points on my debut, we showed great pace there. I think there was no reason why we couldn’t have been in the top five if everything had gone to plan. Qatar and Abu Dhabi were just a bit of a nightmare – issues at different points. Sometimes things happen like that.”
The thing is, a couple of underwhelming events over 14 rounds – rather than three – would not be season-defining in the turbulent, unpredictable world of F2. “Absolutely, yeah,” agrees Browning. “The mindset is very much that we can go in and win the championship this year. We don’t look at it as a learning year, especially in the Hitech car. It’s arguably the best car on the grid.”
And then there’s F1. “It was a bit of a funny feeling sat in the F1 car for the first time in FP,” reflects Browning. “It was almost a feeling of relief. It’s not that I’d made it, it’s that it was happening and it’s possible now.” Just proof, in case you were doubting me, that you need to believe in fairytales.
This article is one of many in the new monthly issue of Autosport magazine. For more premium content, take a look at the February 2025 issue and subscribe today.
The Briton is now aiming to continue to impress in F2 this season
Photo by: James Sutton / Motorsport Images
In this article
Marcus Simmons
Formula 1
FIA F2
National
Luke Browning
HitechGP
Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics
Fairytales do happen, if you look hard enough. From Junior Saloons in a humble Citroen Saxo in 2016, no one could have guessed that, come December 2024, Luke Browning would be behind the wheel of a Williams Formula 1 car in free practice at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
He has arrived at that point through not only sheer determination against the financial odds, but by being one of the most exciting young British talents around – as evidenced by his winning the 2022 Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award. It means that, as well as his role as a Williams protege, Browning undertakes his first full season in Formula 2 this year with Hitech GP – the same team with which he won the 2022 GB3 crown and had a near-miss in the fight for F3 honours last year.
Browning has long been way underfunded compared to his peers, but… “The eyes are out there from junior programmes and people at the BRDC,” he stresses down a phone line from a BRDC training camp on Lanzarote. “There’s a lot of people constantly looking for talent, and if you’ve got it, work hard enough, train hard enough and do enough time on the sim… The sim I think now is just a fantastic way to get into it. If you’re at the real high level of sim Esports, it’s possible for that to transfer over to real life. The goal is not solely F1, but I think it’s possible to become a professional racing driver from the background I’ve come from.”
Browning credits the faith of Richardson Racing, which ran him in Ginetta Junior in 2017-18 and his rookie British F4 campaign in 2019, and Fortec Motorsport, with which he dramatically claimed the F4 crown in 2020 against much-better-funded opposition. “I’ve been very, very lucky to meet and make the most of the people around me,” he acknowledges.
“The main thing was just listening, taking in as much information as I can, because coming from the background I do I’ve not had the ability to do the test days, I wasn’t the most prepared, I wasn’t the most car-fit. But, if you surround yourself with people that are intelligent and know the sport really well, it is possible. And that’s exactly what I did.
“I was very lucky to almost stumble upon these people that just pushed me in the right direction each time. It started out in Richardson Racing, especially with the incredible driver coach I had there, Kieran Vernon [an ex-Formula Palmer Audi and FRenault BARC ace], and Andy Richardson [team boss] especially. They helped me out an incredible amount. Kieran built my foundations, before I then got picked up by Richard Dutton and the absolute powerhouse of Fortec – what a team and they absolutely propelled me onto the next step in F4.”
Browning has come a long way from his days racing a Junior Saloons Saxo in 2016
INSIGHT: The top 10 BTCC support drivers of the past 10 seasons
And it’s with the Hitech team of new Alpine F1 chief Oliver Oakes that Browning has gone from strength to strength: “Suddenly getting called into Hitech was just the best thing that happened to my career. Oli has now been given the opportunity to be Alpine principal, but he’s just a fantastic manager. I can’t speak highly enough about Oli to be honest. I’m just incredibly grateful to him.”
In between Hitech and Fortec, a year in German F4 in 2021 with the US Racing team of former Mercedes DTM chief Gerhard Ungar and Ralf Schumacher provided an education that had previously not been possible. “It was a tough thing to do, but a fantastic learning experience,” says Browning, who finished third in a series won by a certain Ollie Bearman. “It was my first time racing abroad – I didn’t do any European karting, I didn’t know what that European lifestyle was like. I really thank Gerhard for that year – he took me on like a son.”
“It was a bit of a funny feeling sat in the F1 car for the first time in FP. It was almost a feeling of relief. It’s not that I’d made it, it’s that it was happening and it’s possible now” Luke Browning
After the F3 season had finished, Browning contested the final three F2 rounds of 2024 with ART Grand Prix. First time out in Baku he certainly opened some eyes: “That was fantastic, points on my debut, we showed great pace there. I think there was no reason why we couldn’t have been in the top five if everything had gone to plan. Qatar and Abu Dhabi were just a bit of a nightmare – issues at different points. Sometimes things happen like that.”
The thing is, a couple of underwhelming events over 14 rounds – rather than three – would not be season-defining in the turbulent, unpredictable world of F2. “Absolutely, yeah,” agrees Browning. “The mindset is very much that we can go in and win the championship this year. We don’t look at it as a learning year, especially in the Hitech car. It’s arguably the best car on the grid.”
And then there’s F1. “It was a bit of a funny feeling sat in the F1 car for the first time in FP,” reflects Browning. “It was almost a feeling of relief. It’s not that I’d made it, it’s that it was happening and it’s possible now.” Just proof, in case you were doubting me, that you need to believe in fairytales.
This article is one of many in the new monthly issue of Autosport magazine. For more premium content, take a look at the February 2025 issue and subscribe today.
The Briton is now aiming to continue to impress in F2 this season
Photo by: James Sutton / Motorsport Images
In this article
Marcus Simmons
Formula 1
FIA F2
National
Luke Browning
HitechGP
Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics
Cookies
To make this site work properly, we sometimes place small data files called cookies on your device. This enables us to improve our website to provide a better user experience. No personal data is collected.
