Official: Will Stevens will drive for Caterham F1 in Abu Dhabi

Will Stevens, who raced in Formula Renault 3.5 this season, will make his Formula 1 debut this weekend in Abu Dhabi. The 23-year-old Briton has been confirmed by the Caterham F1 team in the second seat alongside Kamui Kobayashi.

« We are delighted to announce that Will Stevens will race alongside Kamui Kobayashi this weekend in Abu Dhabi, » the Leafield team explains on their Twitter feed.

Will Stevens has already tasted the joys of F1 with Caterham in 2013 during private testing and in 2014, and this season he had been appointed as Marussia’s reserve driver at the beginning of October. He expressed his delight on his Twitter feed about the opportunity to start in F1: « So happy to be making my F1 debut this weekend at Abu Dhabi with Caterham. Many years of hard work have led to this, so it’s an incredible day for me. I just want to thank everyone who has helped me along the way, I wouldn’t be here without you! Especially my family. »

Gianluca Pisanello, head of engineering operations at Caterham F1, believes Stevens is well prepared for the task ahead in Abu Dhabi: « We know Will very well from his involvement in the Caterham Academy and moreover, he has spent a lot of time in our simulator, covering about 10,000 km, which has built his experience with this year’s car and the team of engineers who will be in Abu Dhabi. Additionally, his 2014 testing at Silverstone with our car, where he covered over 500 km, was a real success and his race pace was very good. As a result, he was one of our top candidates for this race weekend and we are delighted to have secured his services for our return to the F1 grid. »

Pisanello acknowledges that the choice of the Briton was made a few days ago, but there was uncertainty about obtaining the super license: « We actually signed Will last week, but we had to wait for the confirmation of his Super license before we could make our announcement. »