Will Stevens

William Stevens (born 28 June 1991)[1] is a British racing driver, who formerly competed in the Formula One, Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, Toyota Racing Series and the British Formula Renault Championships. In Formula One, he made his debut at the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with Caterham F1, replacing Marcus Ericsson for the double points race. During the 2015 season he competed with the Manor Marussia F1 Team.

For the American modernist painter and naturalist, see Will Henry Stevens.

Will Stevens
Will Stevens, racing in 2017 with Belgian Audi Club Team WRT.
BornWilliam Stevens
(1991-06-28) 28 June 1991
Rochford, Essex, United Kingdom
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality British
Active years2014–2015
TeamsCaterham, Marussia
Car number28
Entries20 (18 starts)
Championships0
Wins0
Podiums0
Career points0
Pole positions0
Fastest laps0
First entry2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Last entry2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

In 2016, he competed in the Blancpain GT Series and the FIA World Endurance Championship (LMP2) while in 2017, Stevens continues to race for Belgian Audi Club Team WRT racing an Audi R8 LMS in the Blancpain GT Series’ Sprint and Endurance Cups, Blancpain GT Asia Series and the Audi R8 LMS Cup. In the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans, Stevens raced a Ferrari 488 Italia GTE in the GTE AM category for JMW Motorsport, co-driving alongside fellow Briton Rob Smith and Belgian Dries Vanthoor.[2] They won the class, finishing two laps clear of their closest rivals.[3]

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.

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.[4]

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.[5] He finished the race in 17th place, one lap down.[6] He paid £500,000 for the privilege.[7]

Marussia (2015)
Stevens driving for Marussia at the 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix

In February 2015, Manor Marussia announced Stevens as one of their drivers whilst bringing substantial funding to the team, along with Roberto Merhi.[8] 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 his left rear tyre while doing so 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 apologised 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.

McLaren (2018–present)

Stevens has worked with McLaren since 2018 as a test and development driver.[9]

WEC and Blancpain (2016)
Will Stevens races in the 2017 Blancpain Endurance Series with Belgian Audi Club Team WRT.

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.[10] 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.[11]

Le Mans 24 Hours (2017)

In May 2017 it was confirmed that Stevens would co-drive the JMW Ferrari 488 GTE-Am alongside two Le Mans 'rookies', nineteen-year-old Dries Vanthoor of Holland and British driver Rob Smith.[12] The team's Ferrari 488 was fresh out of the box, making its race debut, and was quickly on the pace; third-quickest in first free-practice.[13] The team focused on fulfilling driver qualification requirements in First Qualifying (8th in GTE-Am, 3:56.890), but pushed on in Second Qualifying, with Dries Vanthoor the first to better the old class lap record (3:54.543). Will Stevens then sliced half a second off this by posting a 3:53.981 to lay claim to provisional class pole.[14] In third and final qualifying the team completed race-preparation of the all-new car, and a succession of yellow flags prevented personal improvements for the JMW drivers. The car lined up 6th in GTE-Am for the race.[15] Stevens drove the first stint, moving through to fourth in class. His co-drivers continued the advance, the team capturing third at 5:40 pm, and then second three hours into the race. Shortly after 10 pm, the #84 JMW Ferrari took the GTE-Am lead, and from there steadily built up an advantage that extended to over two laps at the finish. The car completed 333 laps and crossed the line 27th overall. Stevens set the fastest lap for the JMW Ferrari of 3:54.461.[16]

ELMS and Blancpain (2017)

Stevens also in 2017 finished 2nd in the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup which included his first GT3 win at Zolder with team-mate Markus Winkelhock. Unfortunately he had a rather disappointing season in the Blancpain Gt Series Endurance Cup where his car retired in every race he competed in and he wasn't involved in the 24 hours of Spa the blue riband event of the Blancpain GT Series.After their victory at the 24 hours of Le Mans JMW Motorsport invited Stevens to race in the last 2 races of the European Le Man Series in an attempt to come 1st in the GTE Series Team standings. This attempt was successful as Stevens helped the team come 2nd at Spa-Francorchamps and Algarve which elevated the team to 1st in the GTE standings.

2018

In March 2018 Stevens joined the Panis-Barthez LMP2 Team for the 2018 European Le Mans Series and to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

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 UK Winter Series 4 0 0 0 0 54 8th
2008–09 Toyota Racing Series Giles Motorsport 9 0 1 0 5 491 9th
2009 Formula Renault UK Fortec Motorsport 20 0 0 0 1 247 7th
Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 4 0 0 0 0 0 NC
2010 Formula Renault UK Manor Competition 20 1 1 0 7 397 4th
Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 2 0 0 0 1 N/A NC†
Formula Renault 2.0 NEC MP Motorsport 3 1 1 0 1 58 17th
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 Series Carlin 17 0 0 0 1 59 12th
2013 Formula Renault 3.5 Series P1 by Strakka Racing 17 0 0 2 5 148 4th
Formula One Caterham F1 Team Test driver
2014 Formula Renault 3.5 Series 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 FIA World Endurance Championship – LMP2 Manor 2 0 0 0 0 92 7th
G-Drive Racing 3 2 2 0 3
24 Hours of Le Mans – LMP2 1 0 1 0 1 N/A 2nd
Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup Belgian Audi Club Team WRT 8 0 0 0 3 39 9th
Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup 5 0 0 0 0 19 18th
European Le Mans Series 1 0 0 0 1 18 19th
Intercontinental GT Challenge Audi 1 0 0 0 0 4 16th
2017 Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup Belgian Audi Club Team WRT 9 1 0 0 4 74 2nd
Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup 4 0 0 0 0 0 NC
Blancpain GT Series Asia 2 0 0 0 0 4 30th
Blancpain GT Series Asia - Pro-Am 2 0 0 0 1 25 16th
European Le Mans Series - LMGTE JMW Motorsport 2 0 0 0 2 36 10th
24 Hours of Le Mans – LMGTE Am 1 1 0 0 1 N/A 1st
Pirelli World Challenge Absolute Racing 2 0 0 0 0 7 65th
SprintX GT Championship Series 2 0 0 0 0 7 45th
2018 Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup Belgian Audi Club Team WRT 10 1 2 2 4 63.5 4th
European Le Mans Series Panis Barthez Competition 6 0 1 0 2 45.5 9th
24 Hours of Le Mans – LMP2 1 0 0 0 0 N/A 9th
2018-19 FIA World Endurance Championship - LMP2 Jackie Chan DC Racing 2 1 0 0 1 40 11th
2019 European Le Mans Series Panis Barthez Competition 6 0 0 0 0 19.5 18th
24 Hours of Le Mans – LMP2 1 0 0 0 0 N/A 8th
2019-20 FIA World Endurance Championship - LMP2 Jackie Chan DC Racing 8 1 1 0 5 136 5th
2020 European Le Mans Series Panis Racing 5 0 0 0 1 47 4th

† As Stevens was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.

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 he 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
8		 7th 92
G-Drive Racing LMS
2		 NÜR MEX COA FUJ
1		 SHA
1		 BHR
2018–19 Jackie Chan DC Racing LMP2 Oreca 07 Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 SPA LMS SIL FUJ SHA SEB
1		 SPA
6		 LMS 11th 40
2019–20 Jackie Chan DC Racing LMP2 Oreca 07 Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 SIL
4		 FUJ
2		 SHA
2		 BHR
3		 COA
2		 SPA
6		 LMS
DSQ		 BHR
1		 5th 136

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results
Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
2016 G-Drive Racing René Rast
Roman Rusinov		 Oreca 05-Nissan LMP2 357 6th 2nd
2017 JMW Motorsport Robert Smith
Dries Vanthoor		 Ferrari 488 GTE GTE
Am		 333 26th 1st
2018 Panis Barthez Competition Julien Canal
Timothé Buret		 Ligier JS P217-Gibson LMP2 352 13th 9th
2019 Panis Barthez Competition Julien Canal
René Binder		 Ligier JS P217-Gibson LMP2 362 13th 8th
2020 Jackie Chan DC Racing Ho-Pin Tung
Gabriel Aubry		 Oreca 07-Gibson LMP2 141 DSQ DSQ

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
3		 NÜR
CR
2		 HUN
QR
10		 HUN
CR
3		 CAT
QR
5		 CAT
CR
18		 9th 39
2017 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 LMS Pro MIS
QR
Ret		 MIS
CR
DNS		 BRH
QR
11		 BRH
CR
3		 ZOL
QR
3		 ZOL
CR
1		 HUN
QR
7		 HUN
CR
5		 NÜR
QR
5		 NÜR
CR
2		 2nd 74
2018 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 LMS Pro ZOL
1
2		 ZOL
2
11		 BRH
1
1		 BRH
2
Ret		 MIS
1
Ret		 MIS
2
2		 HUN
1
5		 HUN
2
7		 NÜR
1
2		 NÜR
2
Ret		 4th 63.5

Complete European Le Mans Series results
Year Entrant Class Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 Rank Points
2016 Team WRT LMP2 Ligier JS P2 Judd HK 3.6 L V8 SIL IMO RBR LEC SPA
2		 EST 19th 18
2017 JMW Motorsport LMGTE Ferrari 488 GTE Ferrari F154CB 3.9 L Turbo V8 SIL MNZ RBR LEC SPA
2		 ALG
2		 10th 36
2018 Panis Barthez Competition LMP2 Ligier JS P217 Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 LEC
8		 MNZ
7		 RBR
10		 SIL
6		 SPA
3‡		 ALG
2		 9th 45.5
2019 Panis Barthez Competition LMP2 Ligier JS P217 Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 LEC
10		 MNZ
9		 CAT
15		 SIL
7		 SPA
8		 ALG
7		 18th 19.5
2020 Panis Racing LMP2 Oreca 07 Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 LEC
Ret		 SPA
3		 LEC
4		 MNZ
5		 ALG
5		 4th 47

‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.

References
  1. "Will Stevens". DriverDB. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  2. Goodwin, Graham (12 May 2017). "Stevens, Dries Vanthoor Join JMW For Le Mans". www.dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  3. Goodwin, Graham (18 June 2017). "A near-perfect win for JMW in GTE-Am". www.dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  4. Benson, Andrew (3 October 2014). "Japanese GP: Briton Will Stevens joins Marussia". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  5. "Caterham sign Britain's Will Stevens for Abu Dhabi Grand Prix". BBC Sport. 20 November 2014. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
  6. "Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2014 Results". BBC Sport. 23 November 2014. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
  7. "Will Stevens: Who is Formula 1's new English driver?". BBC Sport. 15 April 2015. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  8. "Will Stevens secures Manor Formula 1 race seat". autosport.com. 25 February 2015. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  9. "Will Stevens". mclaren.com. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  10. "Ex-Formula 1 driver Will Stevens moves to Manor WEC LMP2 team". Retrieved 29 February 2016.
  11. Watkins, Gary (9 March 2016). "Will Stevens and Rene Rast share WRT entry in Blancpain GT Series". autosport.com. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  12. Goodwin, Graham (12 May 2017). "Will Stevens joins JMW For Le Mans". www.dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  13. Errity, Stephen (14 June 2017). "Le Mans 24 Hours 2017 – Free Practice". www.dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  14. Errity, Stephen (15 June 2017). "Lap records broken in three classes by seven different drivers". www.dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  15. "Official Qualifying" (PDF). www.dailysportscar.com. 16 June 2017. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
  16. "Official Race Result" (PDF). www.dailysportscar.com. 18 June 2017. Retrieved 18 June 2017.


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