Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Luke Browning was not getting carried away with his podium in Formula 2’s season-opening sprint race in Melbourne as his eyes were already on bigger goals.
The cancellation of the feature race in Australia means Browning’s third-place finish in the reversed-grid encounter puts him in the same position in the championship, but at the time he saw little reason to celebrate and didn’t consider it a weight off his shoulders.
“A podium in the sprint race, although it’s nice to be in the podium, is not my goal for the year,” he told media including Formula Scout. “My goal is to win the championship, and yeah, it’ll happen by doing this a lot, not by just a one-off achievement.”
Browning did say he was “reasonably happy” with the way his year had started, and feels better prepared going into his first full season in F2 with Hitech than he did when he stepped up from Formula 3 with ART Grand Prix at the end of last year.
“It’s going well,” he said. “Obviously doing three rounds before the start of this year [goes] against my rookie status. But even so, I think I’m pretty much a rookie this year, regardless. I did miss one or two of the races, so near enough.
“I think it definitely helps. Obviously being with Hitech and doing all the preparation has been a big thing because I remember hopping into Baku for the first time, I’d never driven an F2 car before, I’d never tested. We qualified, well finished, in the top 10, P7. Which shows that we adapted well, and we’ve continued to do so. Now having all the preparation of Hitech under our belt, I think we’ve achieved well getting a podium in our first race.”
Browning has also kept the same engineer that he had in F3, with Finn Macpherson stepping up to F2 alongside him.
“He’s becoming a well-known name around the paddock now is Finn,” said Browning when asked by Formula Scout about the importance of their relationship. “He did a fantastic job last year. He’s doing a fantastic job this year. And I think he absolutely deserved a step up and has been rewarded with his first podium in Formula 2. We work great together. A very, very tall Irish man who has my back, so I’m very grateful for that.”
Additional reporting by Alejandro Alonso Lopez