Williams has confirmed that Victor Martins will be the team’s reserve driver for next weekend’s Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The Frenchman, who joined the Grove-based squad’s academy in 2025, has been a test and development driver alongside official reservist Luke Browning.
But the British driver’s schedule is focused on his full-time drive in the Japanese Super Formula series, giving Martins another opportunity to be the man to deputise, should Alex Albon or Carlos Sainz be unable to participate.
It is the first time Martins, who has also been racing in the World Endurance Championship for Alpine this season, has been the designated reserve driver since the Singapore Grand Prix last month.
“I’m looking forward to coming to track with the team in Vegas, as it’s always a valuable experience for me to see how my work behind the scenes is being put into practice trackside,” Martins said.
“It will be my first time in Vegas with the team, so looking forward to learning as much as I can and supporting the team.”
Martins is a key member of the Williams team in its development of its problematic FW48 challenger this season.
In an exclusive interview with Motorsport Week at Spa-Francorchamps earlier this season, Martins revealed that the team were “hungry” to return to the sharp end of the grid.
“They all want to first know the direction to take, but I think this is for sure we know it, the direction to take and what to improve,” he said.
“We just need to do small steps every time, race after race.”
“And being part of that is quite nice as a driver because you learn a lot. You learn a lot about how the team is operating and the overall approach about an F1 team.
“So definitely, I think everyone is hungry to be back and there will be more updates coming for sure. And everyone will be happy to see that it’s performing on track at some point.”
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