Williams have confirmed that Luke Browning will drive in place of Alex Albon in FP1 at the 2026 Italian Grand Prix.
Having got his first taste of the current Williams car under the new regulations in Austria when he replaced Carlos Sainz, Browning now will step back into the cockpit at Monza in place of Albon who is officially skipping FP1 for the first time this season.
Albon had originally skipped FP1 at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix in June with his seat taken by Browning, but an electrical issue meant that the Brit didn’t even get out onto the track, which led the FIA to determine that Albon hadn’t officially vacated his FP1 seat at that event.
That decision means that this is the first time that Albon will miss FP1 in an official capacity this season if Browning does at least one lap, and he plus Sainz will again have to give their seats up later in the season to complete the mandatory two FP1 skips per driver.
“I’m thrilled to have another chance to drive an FP1 session with Atlassian Williams F1 Team, commented Browning on his latest FP1 call-up. “It’s a great opportunity to get invaluable laps in the FW48 while building my understanding of the car and helping to bring useful data and feedback back to Grove.”
Browning will participate in FP1 on Friday 4 September which is scheduled for 12:30pm CEST (11:30am BST), with Albon returning to the cockpit in FP2 later that afternoon at 4pm CEST (3pm BST) and the remainder of the race weekend.
Leave a Reply