Who is Will Stevens ?

The Story So Far

Having established himself at a World Championship level in karate as a black belt junior, Will turned his sporting attentions to kart racing in 2002. His introduction to karting came through a family friend and he immediately knew his long term ambitions would be in motor sport.
Will’s achievements throughout his karting career are virtually unparalleled. In taking 10 major National and International titles by the time he was 16 and having established himself as one of the leading karters in the World he made the transition to motor racing at the end of the 2008 season.
It was Will’s reputation in karts that led to the contract to join Honda Formula 1 Racing Team’s Driver Development Programme. This was signed in April 2008 and comprised a long term agreement to support Will through his racing career to his ultimate goal, F1. Honda’s subsequent decision to withdraw from F1 came as a complete surprise to everyone involved but the Brawn GP Team, which successfully emerged to take over the Honda F1 operation, are also continuing Will’s contract under their own driver programme (see the previous post on this here : http://f1-in-singapore.blogspot.com/2009/06/brawn-gp-continue-to-support-will.html).

The transition from karts to cars in not an easy one and the winter of 2008/9 was spent testing with his new team, Fortec Motorsport in the Formula Renault UK category, the top junior class in the UK and Europe. In addition, he gained experienced competing in the UK and Portugese Winter Series and the Toyota racing Series in New Zealand, taking 6 podiums in his first 17 races.
His objective for the 2009 Season is the Formula Renault UK Championship, the top junior category in the UK. The series is a notoriously difficult Championship to win, especially for a rookie in his first year, but one where many of the current F1 drivers learned their craft.

Now 17 years old, Will’s racing career is the key part of his life. His commitments to racing, testing and training mean that time is a valuable commodity. In addition, frequent visits to the Brawn GP headquarters and his Fortec racing team’s base mean that he spends a lot of time away from home. He commented, “I’ve always spent a lot of time away from home throughout my karting career and that has continued now that I’ve started in cars. I actually enjoy the travel and spending time with my team, most of my close friends come from racing, so I’m very lucky to be able spend a lot of my time doing what I love”.

When Will is not away, he spends his time training or playing golf. On his fitness regime he said, “I really enjoy my training sessions now, Martin and Dan at Pro-Performance have helped me enormously with my fitness and its also very enjoyable. I try to get to the gym most week days so my current fitness level is good, I aim to be fit enough for at least the next level of my career at any time, its critically important”.
Will only started playing golf seriously in 2008, “It’s a great way to relax”, he commented, adding “a lot of my friends are good golfers so my natural competitiveness means that I’m working hard on my game to catch them up!”
Will likes to spend his free time with his family, listening to music, on his computer, with the family dogs, Harvey, Buddy and Hugo or out in his road car. In between all of that he likes to make the most of his social life!