17-year old Luke Browning experienced the full range of emotions in his debut season of Formula 4, finishing sixth and picking up two wins and nine podiums. The youngster’s star is on the rise, and he’s hoping to continue that momentum into this season, with some exciting developments on the horizon.

We spoke to him at Autosport International, where he was doing sim mentoring at the Richardson Racing stand.

By Adam Dickinson

Sixth in Formula 4 last year, how do you reflect on that.

It was an up-and-down year for sure, we had some massive highs – like winning on my debut – and then some massive lows, the wheels falling off! It was an absolutely chaotic season, which I’m sure a few people will have followed, it was good fun.

On what I’m going to do next year; I enjoyed it that much that I might come back, but then I might have an opportunity to go and do F3 so yeah, there’s a few things on the cards.

Is that British F3? Have you spoken to any teams?

Yeah, there’s a few teams that I don’t want to name but it’ll be exciting to maybe test something a little bit quicker.

Have you driven an F3 car before?

I’ve not managed to drive one yet, but hopefully there’ll be some exciting stuff coming up over January and Feb.

Were you able to take a lot of confidence from the way you were able to step into the F4 car and do so well in your debut season?

Yeah, I think the car just suits me quite well to be fair, I obviously did juniors so I know the tracks so that really helps, throttle points and stuff like that are quite similar it’s just a lot quicker everywhere.

What have you learnt to deal with the lows next year?

You can’t particularly deal with mechanical failures, there’s not much you can do about that but just not getting your head down. Sometimes it would affect my performance for next race cause my head would be down so I’ve certainly learnt not to let it affect me and just keep your head up. You’ve only got to look at Charles Leclerc, goes and wins the a few days after his dad died [the Formula 2 feature race in Baku], that’s how strong his headspace is. 

Looking ahead from Formula 4, is F1 the dream?

I think anyone who says F1 isn’t the dream is a liar. F1’s just absolutely mega. Whoever get’s the opportunity to go and do it that’d be mega and if I did I’d be over there like a flash but that takes a lot of extensive budget, and just getting the single-seater experience and learning to be consistent and smooth is what I’m after. 

Have you thought about any other options outside single-seater?

Yeah for sure, the Carrera Cup’s a great option, it’s a similar price to F4 just buying the cars a little bit more expensive. It’s quick and it’s a great manufacturer, yeah there’s a few different options we’ve been looking at so I think F4’s probably the most likely for next season.

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