Luke Browning walked away from one of those moments that makes a paddock go quiet.
The Williams reserve was involved in a heavy, high-speed crash at Suzuka during Super Formula testing, with the incident ending in the worst possible place: over the catch fencing and upside down. Williams has confirmed Browning is OK after what, on first viewing, looked every bit as nasty as it sounds.
Browning was negotiating 130R in wet conditions when the car snapped into oversteer mid-corner. There was no theatrical flirt with the kerb or a big correction that might’ve hinted at what was coming — just a sudden loss of rear grip at serious speed, leaving him essentially a passenger as he headed for the barriers.
Onboard footage showed him getting hard on the brakes, but the angle of arrival did the damage. The rear of the car appeared to make contact first, then the chassis swung and met the tyre barrier again at an angle that launched it into the air. It cleared the protective fencing and came to rest inverted, Browning’s helmet pointing toward the asphalt.
It was the sort of crash that instantly reframes any conversation about “development series” risk. Super Formula cars are quick in the dry and properly edgy in the wet — and at Suzuka, 130R has a habit of punishing even small mistakes with big consequences. The incident also carried uncomfortable echoes of Allan McNish’s 2002 Japanese Grand Prix accident at the same corner, where a snap of oversteer sent the Toyota over the fence as well.
The immediate positive, beyond Browning being unharmed, is that modern cockpit protection continues to justify itself. Super Formula, like Formula 1, runs the Halo, and in an upside-down landing it’s hard to ignore how central that structure is to keeping outcomes from turning grim.
Browning’s Suzuka shunt comes at an awkward time in what was supposed to be a statement year. After finishing fourth in Formula 2 last season, Williams confirmed ahead of the 2026 campaign that he’d take reserve duties with the F1 team while also committing to a full Super Formula programme with Team Kondo Racing. It’s a classic contemporary pathway: keep a hand in an F1 environment through simulator work and Friday running, but sharpen racecraft and technical feel in a series that doesn’t flatter you.
He already got a taste of the F1 weekends last year, completing three FP1 sessions for Williams under rookie requirements, and he’s set to remain a key part of the team’s simulator effort through the season. The Super Formula seat was pitched as the next step in his push toward a full-time Formula 1 opportunity — another stage, another culture, another set of tyres and tracks to master.
“This will be a completely new challenge, and I’m looking forward to getting stuck in,” Browning said when the deal was announced. “As my next step up towards a full-time Formula 1 seat, this gives me another chance to show how I’ve developed on track and continue to build my skills in a new environment and culture.”
Crashes in testing aren’t automatically momentum killers, but the timing matters. Super Formula’s 2026 season is due to begin at Motegi on the weekend of 4-5 April, and Browning will want clean mileage more than headlines. Equally, Williams will be relieved this ended with a driver able to climb out, rather than a longer medical story that no one in the sport ever wants to write.
For now, the takeaway is simple: it was a huge hit, at one of the fastest corners in world motorsport, in conditions that can turn small slides into big physics. Browning’s fine — and that, at Suzuka in the wet, is never something to take for granted.
