Browning’s fairytale rise from racing a Saxo to an F1 practice appearance

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.”

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.

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The Briton is now aiming to continue to impress in F2 this season

Photo by: James Sutton / Motorsport Images