Williams Racing has now sprouted with a new strategy. They have just switched their driver ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, with Victor Martins stepping in for the Montreal event while Luke Browning heads to Japan for Super Formula duties at Suzuka.

This shows us just how stretched modern racing is getting, with teams now forced to relocate drivers across major events at the same time.

A bit of background on Martins, who originally joined the Williams Driver Academy during the 2025 Formula 2 season before earning promotion to the team’s official test and development driver role for 2026. What makes the Frenchman uniquely adapted to the Williams model is his proficiency with their simulator.

He trains setup programs alongside Carlos Sainz and Alexander Albon, further strengthening his hand. Martins has also raced for Alpine in the 2026 World Endurance Championship, making this young driver’s schedule one of the busiest in the paddock.

Let’s also take a look at the other driver, Browning, who is now flying to Japan to continue his Super Formula campaign. While the driver is good in a Formula car, Martins was chosen over him as the latter already has prior Formula 1 weekend experience with the Grove-based squad after participating in an FP1 session during last year’s Spanish Grand Prix.

The timing of this switch could prove to be important as well, with Williams struggling with several machine and driver issues in the 2026 season, forcing them to look at other credible options.

Also, Williams continues evaluating recent upgrade packages while attempting to solve ongoing weight and performance limitations on the FW48 heading into Montreal.

Williams’ FW48 disaster has left the team fighting for basic survival in 2026

Williams’ driver switch this season comes against the backdrop of several technological challenges they have been facing that are also showing up in the points table. In 2025, they placed fifth in the Constructors’ Championship with 137 points.

This year, they have collapsed to eighth with five points. Those points can be attributed to Sainz, who scored a ninth-place finish in China, while Alex Albon failed to score before Miami.

The technological issues come from the FW48. James Vowles has now admitted that the car failed crash tests, is 20 kg overweight, and the fitting of rushed redesigns has placed the car in a stage of “messy winter.”

These issues, however, seem to be getting fixed as a breakthrough was now observed in Miami. After the team managed to reduce a lot of weight from the FW48, Sainz finished ninth and Albon tenth, showing that finally the team was working in the right direction.

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Written by

Uday Jakhar

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason