Williams Racing has listed the drivers who will race under its F1 academy banner, with eight drivers in all representing them for 2025 season.
Williams is to continue with majority of its F1 academy drivers for 2025 season, even the ones who joined the team during the course of the 2024 season. The British team will be presented by eight young drivers, where four will compete at karting level and remaining four in single-seaters.
Leading the pack is Luke Browning, who has already tested in F1 with Williams. He is to continue in F2, having switched to Hitech GP, while Alessandro Giusti steps up to F3 with MP Motorsport and Lia Block to continue in F1 Academy series with ART Grand Prix.
Oleksandr Bondarev will compete for Prema in Italian F4 coupled with a winter programme in UAE F4. As for the four karters, Sara Matsui will move on to OKN from OKNJ, with Dean Hoogendoorn & Will Green, to compete in the OKJ series and Lucas Palacio will race in OKJ–N.
“We’re excited to confirm our Williams Racing Driver Academy drivers for this year, and proud to showcase the amount of talent and promise in each of our drivers,” said Sven Smeets. “The Academy is central to our commitment to shaping the future of our sport, supporting them both on and off the track. We’re looking forward to following all the drivers’ progress throughout this 2025 season.”
The likes of Zak O’Sullivan (racing in Super Formula in 2025), Franco Colapinto (switched to Alpine) and Jamie Chadwick (racing in ELMS in 2025) are no longer part of the Williams academy. Full line-up for 2025 season:
Luke Browning (UK, age 22) – F2, Hitech GP
Lia Block (USA, age 18) – F1 Academy, ART Grand Prix
Alessandro Giusti (France, age 18) – F3, MP Motorsport
Oleksandr Bondarev (Ukraine, age 15) – Italian and UAE F4, PREMA
Sara Matsui (Japan, age 14) – OK karting
Dean Hoogendoorn (Netherlands, age 12) – OKJ karting
Will Green (UK, age 11) – OKJ karting
Lucas Palacio (USA, age 11) – OKJ-N karting
Here’s Williams naming Oliver Turvey as development driver
Here’s Alexander Albon on Carlos Sainz’s move
Here’s Williams giving further BTS on Carlos Sainz run
Here’s James Vowles on Franco Colapinto moving to Alpine
Here’s James Vowles on crashes being a distraction
Here’s link to a F1 Discord channel, join in to interact
