Will Stevens
You’ve probably never heard of him, but Will Stevens is the next Lewis Hamilton. At least that is the way his backers see it and they are supporting their decision with heavy investment. The 17 year old from Essex has a contract in his pocket with Honda, which lays out in intricate detail his path from karts to Formula 1. It has been put together for him by his management team of ex F1 drivers Mark Blundell and Martin Brundle, who took him on when he was just 14 years old.
It’s only been done once before, but with spectacular success. McLaren boss Ron Dennis discovered Lewis Hamilton, backing him from the age of 13 and steering him through the ranks to Formula 1. The crucial advantage a deal like this gives to a driver is that it virtually guarantees that he will be driving competitive machinery at every level. There are only one or two top teams in each category and the seats fill up quickly each season as the cream rises to the top. The experience and judgement of Brundle and Blundell in selecting teams allied to the clout of Honda should assure Stevens a winning car at every level, as Hamilton had. The rest is down to him.
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Interesting article. Will Stevens’ name has been doing the rounds a for a little while now, and it would be good to see another Brit up there in F1, hopefully able to one day challenge for the title as well (although they said the same about Jenson Button).
How about Adam Christodolou or Ricky Christodolou? Both were tipped a little while ago to be in F1 in the future.
And Josh Hill? Just by watching him the Ginetta cup cars gives you optimism for the next generation of young British drivers that could be in F1. Josh Hill is definately a lad to look out for. Wouldnt at all be suprised if he followed in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps to win a title one day.
It’s obviously a risk for a team to back a driver from such a young age (although still a few years older than when McLaren picked Hamilton up) but the potential rewards are great. Will be interesting to see which of F1’s new feeder series they usher him into: GP3 or F2?
Too often we see promising British drivers fail even to get into a top feeder series into F1. I hope Oliver Jarvis and Paul di Resta find their way out of DTM and into something like GP2 soon.
James,
just wanted to tell you that I just got my copy of The Edge of Greatness. I’m about 50 pages into it, and so far it’s a great read. Thank you.
Did they all give up on Mike Conway, then? I thought he was supposed to be the Next Big Thing.