Who is Luke Browning?

Williams Racing will see a new face behind the wheel of the FW46 in 2024 when Luke Browning jumps into the cockpit in Abu Dhabi.

The 22-year-old British driver is set for his FP1 debut and his first run of contemporary F1 machinery to cap off a remarkable racing year.

It's the latest step on Luke's remarkable and award-winning journey that has seen him driving karts, cars, and single-seaters. This is his story so far.

Hailing from Cheshire, Luke's earliest racing experience in karting machinery came close to home, where he drove at Wigan's Three Sisters and Birkenhead's Hooton Park.

Racing in series organised by the Independent Kart Racing Championship and the Northern Karting Federation, Luke's natural ability meant on-track action would become a lifelong purpose.

Karting around nearby circuits is a familiar story for many drivers who reach F1 and its direct feeder series, but Luke's next step wasn't one into single-seaters... he instead got behind the wheel of a Citroen Saxo.

Luke began driving in the Junior Saloon Car Championship at just 13 years of age, even though he had never driven a car until just weeks before his debut.

Star Wars fans could spot the young racer by his car's "Use The Force Luke" decal on its rear, which he took to victory and two further podiums in his rookie 2016 season.

More powerful machinery awaited, and 2017 had Luke move to the Ginetta G40 in Britain's Ginetta Junior Championship after impressing a Team Principal in the sim at the Autosport show.

Getting to grips with circuit racing led to a pole position but no silverware during his maiden campaign, but the lessons learned helped for 2018, and Luke finished his time in 'tin-top' racing with a P3 championship finish and eight victories.

Many British motorsport drivers have some experience in Ginetta racing as their grounding for GT or Sports Car careers, but Luke used his to move to Formula 4.

The gamble to head into single-seater machinery paid off immediately, with a victorious debut from P10 on the grid at Brands Hatch.

More trophies came Luke's way over the year, and he took another triumph at Thruxton, eventually finishing his first season in open-cockpit machinery with a P6 championship position.

However, as with his Ginetta Junior experience, Luke's ability to learn and improve helped him for his second season in the series, where he had a season-long scrap against another Williams Racing Driver Academy starlet.

Zak O'Sullivan and Luke exchanged wins throughout 2020, sharing the podium on 11 occasions as the pair secured 16 wins from the 27-race championship.

Luke took the title in the season finale by just four points to end his time racing in Britain for the time being as a champion.

2021 saw Luke taking on a wider pool of international talent than those that contested British F4 with a move to Germany's ADAC championship.

He kept the Union flag flying on the podium and won on his first weekend at the Red Bull Ring in Austria in a campaign where he visited every circuit's rostrum aside from Zandvoort.

Going wheel-to-wheel against the likes of Ferrari-backed Ollie Bearman, 2021 proved another fruitful year of growth, and the eight trophies earned showed what Luke could do at this higher level, eventually finishing the season in P3.

2021 was Luke's busiest season, as he also ventured into other series, including a cameo in Italian F4, where he secured a P2 finish at Circuit Paul Ricard.

A double F4 victory at Spielberg in a brief appearance in Austria's Drexler Automotive Cup and a single round of GB3 at Oulton Park meant Luke ended the year with podiums in four separate championships and wins in three.

That winter had even more action as Luke experiences another new circuit, this time in the Middle East, racing at the Dubai Autodrome for two weekends in the F4 UAE series ahead of his next challenge.

Though Luke's career has plenty of success, it's arguable that his name as an international talent truly made its mark in 2022 when he returned to the UK for the recently launched GB3 championship.

Following old rival Zak O'Sullivan's footsteps, who had won the series' inaugural season in 2021, Luke's stellar campaign had him take the crown and his second title on home soil.

A season that began with back-to-back victories gave him the springboard to lead the standings for most of the year, and another double win in Spa-Francorchamps helped establish Luke's reputation as a driver worth watching.

The BRDC took notice, and he won the coveted Autosport BRDC Award for 2022 to join the likes of Jenson Button, David Coulthard, George Russell, and Lando Norris.

He began 2023 with backing from Williams Racing, joining our Driver Academy to help his maiden season in FIA Formula 3 on F1's support bill.

An encouraging start, including a Sprint Race podium in Barcelona, helped to reach a P15 placement in the standings, but more headline-grabbing action followed after the season finale.

Luke ended 2023 with two career highlights he'll never forget.

His Autosport BRDC award had earned him a drive around Silverstone in an F1 car for the first time, and he drove 44 laps of Silverstone in an AMR21.

And 2023 ended on an even higher note, with Luke dominating the famous Macau Grand Prix, the toughest test in junior racing.

Driving against a talented field of names from the feeder series ladder, including previous winners Richard Verschoor and Dan Ticktum, Luke grabbed pole position at the twisty street circuit by just 0.006s in an incident-filled session.

He followed up that speed with victories in the Qualifying Race and the Main Race to win the same event that Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher once did, despite a lengthy red flag in the latter.

A sophomore season in FIA F3 followed, and Luke continued his trend of second-season excellence by staying in the title hunt all season long.

Victory in Bahrain and Austria, coupled with a podium trip in Monaco and consistent point-scoring finishes led Luke to P3 in the standings.

His graduation to F2 didn't wait long, as he graduated to the step below F1 just two weeks after F3's conclusion to debut in Baku with an impressive point-scoring finish.

He ends 2024 as a Formula 2 driver set to pilot current-generation F1 machinery in Abu Dhabi for his maiden FP1 and get an unforgettable experience under his belt in the post-season Young Driver Test.