Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Victor Martins has secured two major contracts for his services as a driver this year, with Formula 1 rivals Alpine and Williams.
He will race in prototype sportscar racing’s top tier by joining Alpine’s team in the World Endurance Championship’s hypercar class, and Williams has promoted him from junior driver status to being an F1 test and development driver.
The 24-year-old Frenchman was an Alpine Academy member from 2018 to 2019, when it was the Renault Sport Academy, then was dropped for a year before earning his spot back by becoming 2020 Formula Renault Eurocup champion.
He spent four years as an Alpine F1 junior during his second spell in the driver development programme, and also co-launched the Victory Lane team to run drivers in karting and support their development in single-seaters.
Martins won the 2022 FIA Formula 3 Championship, and spent the next three years racing in Formula 2 with ART Grand Prix and testing in F1 and Formula E. His rookie F2 campaign was his best, coming fifth in the points with nine podiums.
In late 2024 he was called up by Alpine’s WEC team (which is operated by Signatech) to test its A424 hypercar, and in early 2025 left the brand’s F1 team as he was overlooked for a contracted role such as reserve driver.
By March he had joined Williams’ driver development programme, and went on to conduct several F1 tests and drive in free practice at the Spanish Grand Prix.
His Williams role is also occupied by British drivers Oliver Turvey and Harrison Scott. Turvey raced in FE for NIO from 2015 to 2022, then became reserve driver sporting advisor for the rival DS Penske team.
Scott, now 29, was 2017 Euroformula champion and eighth in USF Pro 2000 the year after as a part-timer before his racing career ended. Williams employed him as a simulator driver in 2022, and last October he made his F1 test debut at Bahrain.
Also graduating from junior single-seaters to racing hypercars in 2026 is Kaylen Frederick, who has joined JDC–Miller MotorSports to drive in its Porsche 963 for IMSA’s five Endurance Cup rounds. He debuts in next weekend’s Daytona 24 Hours.
The 23-year-old American was 2020 GB3 (nee BRDC British F3) champion, spent three years in FIA F3 then made a sideways move to Super Formula Lights. He took two wins, six other podiums and came fifth in the standings twice in Japan.
Ed Pearson will remain with Nielsen Racing this year as he switches from Euroformula to prototype sportscars’ second-tier LMP2 class in the European Le Mans Series.
Now 19, the Briton came 12th in British Formula 4 in 2022 as a single-seater rookie then 19th in GB3 with two podiums the following year. His sophomore campaign was worse, but when he stepped up to Euroformula last year he won on debut and came fifth in the third-tier championship with two victories and six podiums.