Victor Martins will be on standby as Williams’ reserve driver at this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix.
The move comes as regular reserve driver Luke Browning is unavailable due to a clash with the Super Formula series in Japan.
Martins Steps Up
Martins, the former Alpine F1 junior, is currently competing for the French manufacturer in the World Endurance Championship. He started the 2026 season with consecutive 11th-place finishes at Imola and Spa.
Martins joined Williams’ academy at the start of 2025. He appeared in the opening practice session at last year’s Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.
He graduated to the role of test and development driver ahead of the F1 2026 season, working closely with race drivers Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon. He also assists with development and setup work in the simulator.
With Browning participating in the fourth round of the Super Formula championship at Suzuka, Martins has stepped up to a trackside role at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Williams’ Upgrade and Performance
Williams enjoyed a more encouraging weekend in Miami earlier this month, with Sainz and Albon finishing ninth and 10th respectively, following a challenging start to the F1 2026 season.
Sainz revealed that Williams’ upgrade in Florida had originally been expected to arrive in time for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in March.
He warned that the team, which has struggled with an overweight chassis, is unlikely to complete its turnaround before the closing months of this season.
Sainz said: “We finally put the upgrade on the car that was supposed to come to race one, because of all the delays we had at the beginning of the season.
“Now we’ve finally put on the car what was supposed to be the race one package.
“Now it’s on the car, it’s performing at least at the level of the midfield cars. We know we still have a lot of overweight [issues] to set up the car.
“When you look at that, then it’s positive.
“I think the team has done a great effort over the last few weeks to bring this and it shows that when you do things right, things start to come away a bit better.”
He added: “Not where we want to be.
“Still, I expect everyone at home to know this is still not where we want to be, even if it feels for everyone a bit of a relief, because getting two cars in the points and on merit is definitely a good step.
“But we need to keep pushing because it’s still not where we expected to be at the end of last year when we were hoping for 2026.
“Hopefully the start of a new recovery and hopefully by the end of the year we get where we want to be.
“It’s going to take