Academy Preview: Our Youngsters at Yas Marina

The Abu Dhabi GP weekend will be a career high for one of the Williams Racing Driver Academy in the upcoming days.

Luke Browning gets to realise his lifelong dream by jumping in F1 machinery on a Grand Prix weekend at the Yas Marina Circuit on Friday — and again next week.

Yet he still has the not-so-small matter of F2 to tackle, and he'll have Lia Block driving on track too as F1 Academy's season ends with a bumper schedule.

Here's what our junior drivers face in Abu Dhabi, and when you can catch them.

Luke will drive his third piece of single-seater machinery in 2024 on Friday, and we have a feeling that sitting in the cockpit of the FW46 will be a little different from his other drives.

That is quite an ascent over 12 months, with Luke going from Macau GP victory in 2023 to sharing the track with world champions Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

It's not the only FW46 time Luke will enjoy, either, as he'll return to the cockpit in the post-season Young Driver Test next week.

Luke must juggle his F1 debut with racing in the final round of the 2024 F2 season, as F1's direct feeder series runs in support of the Grand Prix.

An especially busy Friday will have just 30 minutes between FP1's conclusion and the beginning of F2's Qualifying.

He'll be hoping to bookend his year of racing with two Middle Eastern successes after winning in the Bahrain F3 season-opening Feature Race back in March.

Lia must also handle a busier-than-usual racing weekend in her first trip to Abu Dhabi.

An extra session is on the F1 Academy schedule after Race 2's cancellation in Qatar due to extensive barrier repairs.

With Saturday featuring two races and Sunday squeezing in a one-off Race 3, that means Lia has more chances to pick up points during her final days of 2024 single-seater racing.

The third-fastest time of each driver will set the starting order for the additional Race 3, so finding Qualifying consistency could see Lia with three high-starting grid slots.

2024 has seen continued improvements for our American F1 Academy representative, both in single-lap speed, and in race results, so she'll be looking to end the season on a high.