Stefan Wilson

Stefan Wilson
Nationality	British
Born	20 September 1989 Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England
Related to	Justin Wilson (brother)
Firestone Indy Lights career
Debut season	2009
Current team	Fan Force United
Car no.	24
Former teams	First Motorsports/Walker Racing Bryan Herta Autosport Andretti Autosport
Starts	32
Wins	1
Poles	2
Fastest laps	2
Best finish	3rd in 2011
Previous series
2008 2006–07	British Formula 3 Formula Palmer Audi

Stefan James Wilson (born 20 September 1989 in Sheffield, UK) is a British racing driver. He is the younger brother of the late Formula One and IndyCar Series driver Justin Wilson. He is also the winner of the 2007 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award for promising young British drivers.^[1]

Career

Formula Palmer Audi and British F3

After a long karting career as a child, Stefan stepped up to open-wheel racing in November 2006, competing in the Formula Palmer Audi Autumn Trophy at Snetterton and Brands Hatch. Stefan gradually improved over the course of his first six car races and finished the six-race mini-series in ninth place, also ending as top rookie. He picked up three top-six finishes and set fastest lap in the final round at Brands Hatch.

Wilson driving for Fluid Motorsport at the Croft round of the 2008 British Formula 3 season.

Stefan competed in the 2007 Formula Palmer Audi Championship, the 10th anniversary of the series and also the 10th anniversary of when his brother Justin won the first FPA title. He finished 2nd in the championship after a great final round at Croft, where he scored 2 podiums after his worst qualifying of the season, only starting 7th and 9th for the two races. Stefan overtook a total of 11 cars. He also closed the final gap between him and more experienced driver Tim Bridgman to just 28 points.

He scored 4 wins over the course of the season; the first came in round 4 of the championship at the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit in front of nearly 50,000 spectators. The second half of Wilson's championship was more successful as he scored 4 pole positions and 3 of his 4 wins. Wilson ended the championship in 2nd place, with a tally of 4 wins, 9 podiums, 4 pole positions, 5 fastest laps, and 2 lap records.

At the end of the season he won the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award for young British drivers. Part of the award was a prize drive in a McLaren Formula One car, which took place on the Silverstone National Circuit on 13 November 2009.^[2]

In 2008 he competed in the British Formula 3 Championship National Class in 2008 with Fluid Motorsport and captured 4 class wins on his way to 4th in the National Class points standings.

Indy Lights

Wilson signed to race a partial schedule in Firestone Indy Lights in 2009 for First Motorsports with cars prepared by Walker Racing that included six road and street courses. He qualified third at Long Beach but was sidelined by a mechanical problem towards the finish. His best finish was fourth in the wet/dry race at Toronto. In 2010 returned to the series to race for Bryan Herta Autosport.^[3] Wilson finished 11th in points despite missing one race due to funding issues and another due to a damaged racecar. He had a career-best finish of third in the season opener at St. Pete and ran the fastest race lap in Toronto.

In 2011 he returned to Indy Lights full-time with Andretti Autosport. He captured one pole, two wins, and finished on the podium three more times to finish third in the championship. Despite Wilson's 2011 success he was out of racing until the 2012 Indy Lights season finale at Auto Club Speedway where he drove for Fan Force United and finished sixth.

IndyCar

Wilson made his IndyCar debut at the 2013 Grand Prix of Baltimore driving for Dale Coyne Racing, finishing sixteenth. His brother Justin drove the other full-time entry for Dale Coyne Racing, making the Wilson brothers the first pair of brothers to drive in IndyCar for the same team since Gary Bettenhausen and Tony Bettenhausen, Jr. drove for their family team in 1983.

In June 2014 Fan Force United announced that they had signed Wilson for the team's full-time step up to the IndyCar Series in 2015.^[4] However, this entry ultimately did not materialize.

On 26 April 2016 it was announced that Wilson will be driving for KV Racing Technology at the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500. Wilson will be driving the No. 25 Driven2SaveLives Chevy. He chose No. 25 in honor of his late brother Justin, who drove the No. 25 car when he received his fatal injuries during an incident at the 2015 ABC Supply 500.

Racing record

Career history

Year	Series	Team Name	Races	Poles	Wins	Points	Final Placing
2006	Formula Palmer Audi Autumn Trophy	Justin Wilson	6	0	0	52	9th
2007	Formula Palmer Audi		20	4	4	332	2nd
2008	British Formula 3 Championship National Class	Fluid Motorsport Development	22	3	4	194	4th
2009	Firestone Indy Lights	First Motorsports/Walker Racing	6	0	0	112	22nd
2010	Firestone Indy Lights	Bryan Herta Autosport	11	0	0	278	11th
2011	Firestone Indy Lights	Andretti Autosport	14	1	2	450	3rd
2012	Firestone Indy Lights	Fan Force United	1	0	0	28	23rd
2013	Izod IndyCar Series	Dale Coyne Racing	1	0	0	14	33rd
2016	Verizon IndyCar Series	KVSH Racing	1	0	0	14	33rd

American open-wheel racing results

(key)

Indy Lights

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	Rank	Points
2009	FIRST/Derrick Walker Racing	STP1 13	STP2 17	LBH 22	KAN	INDY	MIL	IOW	WGL 12	TOR 4	EDM	KTY	MDO 8	SNM	CHI	HMS	22nd	112
2010	Bryan Herta Autosport	STP 3	ALA 6	LBH 17	INDY 7	IOW 7	WGL 12	TOR 3	EDM 7	MDO 4	SNM	CHI 6	KTY 12	HMS			11th	278
2011	Andretti Autosport	STP 16	ALA 2	LBH 3	INDY 4	MIL 8	IOW 8	TOR 1	EDM1 4	EDM2 2	TRO 4	NHM 12	BAL 5	KTY 1	LVS 8		3rd	450
2012	Fan Force United	STP	ALA	LBH	INDY	DET	MIL	IOW	TOR	EDM	TRO	BAL	FON 6				23rd	28

IndyCar Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
2013	Dale Coyne Racing	Dallara DW12	Honda	STP	ALA	LBH	SAO	INDY	DET	DET	TXS	MIL	IOW	POC	TOR	TOR	MDO	SNM	BAL 16	HOU	HOU	FON	33rd	14
2016	KVSH Racing	Dallara DW12	Chevrolet	STP	PHX	LBH	ALA	IMS	INDY 28	DET	DET	RDA	IOW	TOR	MDO	POC	TXS	WGL	SNM				34th	14

References

1. Freeman, Glenn (2 December 2007). "McLaren Autosport BRDC: Stefan Wilson". autosport.com. Retrieved 3 December 2007.
2. Glendenning, Mark (13 November 2009). "Wilson gets prize Formula 1 test". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 13 November 2009.
3. "Bryan Herta Autosport signs Stefan Wilson". motorsport.com. via Bryan Herta Autosport. 3 February 2010. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
4. Glendenning, Mark (27 June 2014). "Stefan Wilson gets 2015 IndyCar deal with Fan Force United". autosport.com. Retrieved 2 July 2014.

External links

• Stefan Wilson Official Website
• Stefan Wilson career summary at DriverDB.com