William Jonathan Richard Stevens was born on 28 June 1991 in
Rochford,
Essex, England.
Karting Stevens started his racing career in 2003 at the 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 seventh in the Rotax class in Super One he joined
Formula Renault 2.0.
Formula Renault 2.0 Stevens ended seventh in the 2009
Formula Renault 2.0 UK and fourth in 2010. In 2011, he switched to the
Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup, where he finished fourth.
Formula Renault 3.5 at the
Nürburgring. Stevens jumped to the
Formula Renault 3.5 Series in 2012, finishing 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. The following month, Stevens made his
Formula One debut with
Caterham F1 at the
2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, having previously tested for the team. He finished the race in 17th place, one lap down. He paid £500,000 for the privilege.
Marussia (2015) In February 2015,
Manor Marussia announced Stevens as one of their drivers whilst bringing substantial funding to the team, along with
Roberto Merhi.
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 five-second penalty for the collision but Stevens had dropped from being four 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, four 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 three of four 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. 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.
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 Belgium and British driver Rob Smith. 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. The team focused on fulfilling driver qualification requirements in First Qualifying (eighth 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). Stevens then sliced half a second off this by posting a 3:53.981 to lay claim to provisional class pole. 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 sixth in GTE-Am for the race. 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 No. 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.
ELMS and Blancpain (2017) , the debut of
Jota's Porsche 963. Stevens also in 2017 finished second 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 two races of the
European Le Man Series in an attempt to come first in the GTE Series Team standings. This attempt was successful, as Stevens helped the team come second at
Spa-Francorchamps and
Algarve which elevated the team to first in the GTE standings.
ELMS (2018–present) 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.
McLaren F1 (2018–present) Stevens has worked with
McLaren since 2018 as a test and development driver, primarily carrying out simulator work. McLaren announced on 11 July 2022 that Stevens would drive the
McLaren MCL35 2021 car at a private test to be held between 11 and 13 July at
Portimao circuit. ==Racing record==