Victor Martins will replace Alex Albon in FP1 for Williams at the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix.
Martins joined Williams’ Young Driver Academy after five years with Alpine where he was dropped in 2020 due to poor performances, but immediately regained their support by winning that year’s Formula Renault Eurocup and went on to win the 2022 F3 title.
The 23-year-old French driver is now in his third season of F2 and currently lies eighth in the driver standings with a 37-point title deficit to fellow Williams’ junior – Luke Browning who currently leads the championship on 70 points after five rounds.
Williams however decided that Martins has impressed enough to earn his first F1 session in FP1 at the Spanish Grand Prix, where he will drive Albon’s car as the British-Thai driver sits out the first of two required FP1 absences for rookie drivers this season.
This move also means that Williams have fulfilled two of their required four FP1 participations for rookie drivers this season, after Carlos Sainz skipped FP1 in Bahrain for Browning in which the Brit finished as the highest of six rookie drivers in that session.
Feeling “super happy” to be driving the FW47 car in Barcelona, Spain at Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona, Martins is excited about his first FP1 session a F1 race weekend.
“It will be an incredible experience to drive for the team. I’m working hard to prepare as much as possible to maximise my time in the car and make it a valuable session for myself and the team.
“I’m hugely grateful to everyone at Atlassian Williams Racing for giving me this opportunity and I’m looking forward to enjoying every second of it!”
Williams’ Sporting Director, Sven Smeets added that the team are “proud” to hand Martins his F1 bow following impressive performances this season despite some tough results.
“He continues to demonstrate that he is a talented driver, and this session is an important step forward in his career as part of the Academy.
“His participation in our TPC programme and simulator work in Grove have prepared him well and we look forward to seeing him in the garage this weekend.”
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