Will Stevens

Will Stevens

Stevens at the 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix.
Born	William Stevens 28 June 1991 Rochford, Essex, UK
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	British
Teams	Caterham, Marussia
Entries	20 (18 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Last entry	2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
2015 position	21st (0 pts)
Previous series
2012–14 2010 2009–11 2009–10 2008–09 2008 2008	Formula Renault 3.5 Series FR2.0 Northern European Cup Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Formula Renault UK Toyota Racing Series FRUK Winter Series FR2.0 Portugal Winter Series

William Stevens, known as Will Stevens, (born 28 June 1991 in Rochford, Essex)^[1] is a British racing driver, formerly competing in Formula One. He has competed in Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, Toyota Racing Series and the British Formula Renault Championship. In Formula One, he debuted with Caterham F1 at the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, replacing Marcus Ericsson for the double points race. In the 2015 season he competed with the Manor Marussia F1 Team. He currently races in FIA World Endurance Championship with Manor Motorsport in the LMP2 category.

Career

Karting

Stevens started his racing career in 2003 at age of 12 in karts. After one year of racing in the National Cadet championship he joined Rotax Mini Max. He raced in a lot of different championships in Britain and outside, and after finishing 7th in the Rotax class in Super One he joined Formula Renault 2.0.

Formula Renault 2.0

He ended 7th in the 2009 Formula Renault 2.0 UK and 4th in 2010. In 2011 he switched to the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup, where he resulted 4th.

Formula Renault 3.5

Stevens during the 2014 Formula Renault 3.5 Series season at the Nürburgring.

Stevens jumped to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series in 2012, resulting 12th in his first year. In 2013 he scored five podiums in 17 races and ended fourth in the season standings. The driver got two wins and four podiums in 2014 to finish sixth in points.

Formula One

Marussia and Caterham (2014)

In October 2014 Marussia F1 announced that Stevens had joined the team as a reserve driver for the remainder of the 2014 season. They had originally planned to run him in first practice session of the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix; however they were unable to return the relevant paperwork to the FIA Contract Recognition Board in time.^[2]

The following month he made his Formula One debut with Caterham F1 at the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, having previously tested for the team.^[3] He finished the race in 17th place, one lap down.^[4] He paid £500,000 for the privilege.^[5]

Marussia (2015)

Stevens driving for Marussia at the 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix

In February 2015, Marussia F1 announced Stevens as one of their drivers whilst bringing substantial funding to the team, along with Roberto Merhi.^[6] Marussia attended the Australian Grand Prix but did not compete due to a technical issue. In the Malaysian Grand Prix Stevens drove the Marussia car for the first time in Practice 1. However, he did not compete in qualifying or the race because of a problem with the fuel system. In the Chinese Grand Prix Stevens finished his first race for Marussia in 15th place ahead of his teammate Merhi after being lapped twice by race winner Lewis Hamilton. Stevens finished ahead of Merhi in Bahrain and Spain. He finished behind Merhi in the Monaco Grand Prix in 16th. In the Canadian Grand Prix he qualified behind Merhi but moved up to 17th due to penalties to Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen. In the race on lap 52, Romain Grosjean of Lotus was lapping Stevens but cut Stevens left rear tyre which caused both drivers to make an emergency pit stop. The mechanics of both Lotus and Marussia had little time to react to their drivers pitting so that meant both Grosjean and Stevens took long pit stops. Stevens complained to his team on the radio about the incident. Grosjean received a 5-second penalty for the collision but Stevens had dropped from being 4 seconds behind Merhi to a minute behind him. However, Merhi was forced to retire on lap 56 after a drive-shaft issue. Stevens eventually finished in 17th place, 4 laps down on race winner Lewis Hamilton. After the race, Grosjean apologized to Stevens for the incident. During the later races of the season, Merhi was replaced by Alexander Rossi who outpaced Stevens in 3 of 4 races.

WEC and Blancpain (2016)

In February 2016, Manor Motorsport, a team made by former Manor Racing employees John Booth and Graeme Lowdon, decided to compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship, with Stevens and former Manor F3 driver Tor Graves.^[7] The following month it was announced that Stevens would dovetail his WEC campaign with racing in the 2016 Blancpain GT Series for the W Racing Team, driving an Audi R8 LMS with René Rast.^[8]

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	FLaps	Podiums	Points	Position
2008	Formula Junior FR2.0	Fortec Motorsport	4	0	0	1	1	15	8th
	Formula Renault 2.0		4	0	0	0	0	54	8th
2008–09	Toyota Racing Series	Giles Motorsport	9	0	1	0	5	491	9th
2009	Formula Renault 2.0	Fortec Motorsport	4	0	0	0	0	N/A	NC†
	Formula Renault UK		20	0	0	0	1	247	7th
2010	Formula Renault 2.0 NEC	MP Motorsport	3	1	1	0	1	58	17th
	Formula Renault 2.0	Manor Competition	2	0	0	0	1	N/A	NC†
	Formula Renault UK		20	1	1	0	7	397	4th
2011	Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0	Fortec Motorsport	14	1	3	0	4	116	4th
	Formula Renault UK		4	0	1	0	2	76	14th
2012	Formula Renault 3.5	Carlin	17	0	0	0	1	59	12th
2013	Formula Renault 3.5	P1 by Strakka Racing	17	0	0	2	5	148	4th
	Formula One	Caterham F1 Team	Test driver
2014	Formula Renault 3.5	Strakka Racing	17	2	1	0	4	122	6th
	Formula One	Caterham F1 Team	1	0	0	0	0	0	23rd
2015	Formula One	Manor Marussia F1 Team	19	0	0	0	0	0	21st
2016	World Endurance Championship - LMP2	Manor	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC*
	Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	2	0	0	0	0	0	NC*
	Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup		1	0	0	0	0	8	6th*

^* Season still in progress.

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Pos	Points
2012	Carlin	ALC 1 6	ALC 2 8	MON 1 12	SPA 1 13	SPA 2 8	NÜR 1 10	NÜR 2 13	MSC 1 10	MSC 2 8	SIL 1 Ret	SIL 2 6	HUN 1 23	HUN 2 3	LEC 1 11	LEC 2 11	CAT 1 4	CAT 2 9	12th	59
2013	P1 Motorsport	MNZ 1 18	MNZ 2 Ret	ALC 1 2	ALC 2 4	MON 1 7	SPA 1 Ret	SPA 2 2	MSC 1 4	MSC 2 3	RBR 1 4	RBR 2 6	HUN 1 8	HUN 2 Ret	LEC 1 5	LEC 2 13	CAT 1 2	CAT 2 3	4th	148
2014	Strakka Racing	MNZ 1 1	MNZ 2 Ret	ALC 1 12	ALC 2 3	MON 1 8	SPA 1 7	SPA 2 2	MSC 1 6	MSC 2 9	NÜR 1 11	NÜR 2 7	HUN 1 6	HUN 2 10	LEC 1 12	LEC 2 8	JER 1 1	JER 2 13	6th	122

Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	WDC	Points
2014	Caterham F1 Team	Caterham CT05	Renault Energy F1‑2014 1.6 V6 t	AUS	MAL	BHR	CHN	ESP	MON	CAN	AUT	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	SIN	JPN	RUS	USA	BRA	ABU 17	23rd	0
2015	Manor Marussia F1 Team	Marussia MR03B	Ferrari 059/3 1.6 V6 t	AUS DNP	MAL DNS	CHN 15	BHR 16	ESP 17	MON 17	CAN 17	AUT Ret	GBR 13	HUN 16^†	BEL 16	ITA 15	SIN 15	JPN 19	RUS 14	USA Ret	MEX 16	BRA 17	ABU 18	21st	0

^† Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as they completed over 90% of the race distance.

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

Year	Entrant	Class	Car	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Rank	Points
2016	Manor	LMP2	Oreca 05	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	SIL Ret	SPA	LMS	NÜR	MEX	COA	FUJ	SHA	BHR	NC*	0*

^* Season still in progress.

Complete Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup results

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Pos.	Points
2016	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	Audi R8 LMS	Pro	MIS QR 14	MIS CR Ret	BRH QR	BRH CR	NÜR QR	NÜR CR	HUN QR	HUN CR	CAT QR	CAT CR	NC*	0*

^* Season still in progress.

References

1. "Will Stevens". DriverDB. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
2. Benson, Andrew (3 October 2014). "Japanese GP: Briton Will Stevens joins Marussia". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
3. "Caterham sign Britain's Will Stevens for Abu Dhabi Grand Prix". BBC Sport. 20 November 2014. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
4. "Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2014 Results". BBC Sport. 23 November 2014. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
5. "Will Stevens: Who is Formula 1's new English driver?". BBC Sport. 15 April 2015. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
6. "Will Stevens secures Manor Formula 1 race seat". autosport.com. 25 February 2015. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
7. "Ex-Formula 1 driver Will Stevens moves to Manor WEC LMP2 team". Retrieved 29 February 2016.
8. Watkins, Gary (9 March 2016). "Will Stevens and Rene Rast share WRT entry in Blancpain GT Series". autosport.com. Retrieved 12 April 2016.

External links

• Official website
• Will Stevens on Twitter
• Will Stevens career summary at DriverDB.com