Then and Now: Luke Browning on how much he has learned in Formula 3 and Formula 2

After a title-contending 2024 FIA Formula 3 campaign, Luke Browning is back in the Championship hunt this season, but in Formula 2.

Looking back on his time in both Championships, the Hitech TGR driver says all of his success has been a result of the work he has done since his first days in single seater racing and thanks to the support of people in his life.

“It's been a learning curve, that’s the only way to put it. I'm a lot more developed now than when I first jumped into Formula 3. Natural raw talent and pace was always there, right for the first time hopping in back in Bahrain.

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“But becoming the finished product has been a real journey over the last three years and I've really enjoyed it. Here we are in Formula 2, finishing third in Formula 3 last year, having won in Macau and now with some title hopes in F2, it's been exciting.

“The development curve has been steep, and my ceiling has not been reached, so I am learning more and more.

“Anyone that remembers my rookie F3 year, there were a lot of mistakes. But the pace was ballistic, but a lot of rookie mistakes, a lot of bad luck, probably the year I had the most go wrong and naturally in Formula 3 you've only got 10 chances.

“If you screw up six of them, it's very easy to make three mistakes and then have three things go wrong and that's 60% of the year gone and the rest of the 40% you can't do anything about it.

“But that's the way it is. 2023 Formula 3 was definitely the year I learnt the most. 2024 was the year to put it together, and we did that. It wasn't quite enough to win the Championship, but we were close to it.

“Coming in within six points into the last round of the Championship, having that swept away at Silverstone, but I think realistically, how could that have changed.

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“I think there were a lot of things that didn't go our way, we had the pace all year to win the Championship, but equally we look back at Formula 3, I think I've won something in every category I've been in now.

“I won Formula 4, I won GB3, I won the World Cup in Formula 3, and now the next step will be to win something in F2, and the only thing to do is win the Formula 2 Championship, so looking forward to that.

“Formula 2 is going very well. We started off with a podium in Melbourne, followed by a run of podiums in every round. Not quite had the ultimate pace to put it on pole yet, but I've got a feeling it's coming. So I am going to be pushing for it in the second half of the season.

“Let's just see how it comes to us. We are not getting ahead of ourselves, the team is doing a great job, and the Championship is well within our reach. I think it's the tightest year Formula 2 has ever had, in terms of Qualifying and the points split, it's incredibly tight.

“I am looking forward to pushing on now, getting more experience in the car and going back to tracks that I have already driven before.

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“It's amazing to be trusted with the F1 machinery. I love Formula 1, it's the goal for the future, and to be testing these cars I really feel like I am getting up to speed in them now, so it's fantastic.

“I am loving every minute I get to drive a Formula 1 car for Williams, long may it last and I hope to get more opportunities to drive them in the future.

“What's funny is the people who have just come into my life in the past three years look at it as the last three years, but the progression for me has come from the first year in Formula 4.

“I won the first race that I'd ever done in the wet at Brands Hatch, and I look back at that, look at who I was then to what I am now, it's huge. It's funny that I have this wider perspective, while this is just another step in the ladder and just natural evolution.

“I'm so lucky to have the people around me and the support I have today, to be able to extract more and more from myself because the ceiling is so high.

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"But the more that's invested in me, the more time, the effort, the tests I do with Williams, the more I drive the Formula 2 car, I feel like I am only getting better.

“I am ready to continue with that, and I think the experience in Formula 2 and experience in general makes such a massive difference. Coming back for a second year in F2 must be massive, coming back for a second year in F3 must be huge, this is why it's so impressive what we planned to do in our first year of Formula 2.”