Stevens was born on 28 June 1991 in Rochford, Essex, England. He started his racing career in 2003 at the age of 12 in karts, beginning in the National Cadet championship before moving to Rotax Mini Max.
Stevens entered Formula Renault 2.0, finishing seventh in the 2009 Formula Renault 2.0 UK and fourth in 2010. In 2011 he switched to the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup, finishing fourth. He progressed to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series in 2012, finishing 12th in his debut season. In 2013 he scored five podiums in 17 races and ended fourth in the standings. In 2014 he took two wins and four podiums to finish sixth in points.
In October 2014, Marussia F1 announced Stevens as a reserve driver for the remainder of the season. He made his Formula One debut with Caterham F1 at the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, having previously tested for the team, finishing 17th one lap down. He paid £500,000 for the opportunity.
In February 2015, Manor Marussia announced Stevens as one of their drivers alongside Roberto Merhi, bringing substantial funding to the team. The team attended the Australian Grand Prix but did not compete due to a technical issue. Stevens drove the Marussia car for the first time in Practice 1 at the Malaysian Grand Prix but did not compete in qualifying or the race due to a fuel system problem. At the Chinese Grand Prix, Stevens finished 15th, ahead of Merhi, after being lapped twice by race winner Lewis Hamilton.
At the 2015 Canadian Grand Prix, Romain Grosjean of Lotus was lapping Stevens but cut his left rear tyre in doing so, causing both drivers to make an emergency pit stop. Stevens complained to his team on the radio about the incident; Grosjean received a five-second penalty but the incident dropped Stevens from four seconds behind Merhi to a minute behind. Merhi later retired on lap 56 with a drive-shaft issue. Grosjean apologised to Stevens after the race. During the later races of the 2015 season, Merhi was replaced by Alexander Rossi, who outpaced Stevens in three of four races.
In February 2016, Stevens joined Manor Motorsport for a WEC LMP2 campaign alongside Tor Graves. He also raced in the 2016 Blancpain GT Series for the W Racing Team, driving an Audi R8 LMS with René Rast.
In 2017, Stevens co-drove the JMW Ferrari 488 GTE-Am at the 24 Hours of Le Mans alongside 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. Vanthoor became the first driver to better the old GTE-Am class lap record at 3:54.543; Stevens then improved it further to 3:53.981 to claim provisional class pole. The No. 84 JMW Ferrari took the GTE-Am lead shortly after 10 pm and built an advantage extending to over two laps at the finish. The car completed 333 laps, crossing the line 27th overall. Stevens set the fastest lap for the car at 3:54.461. The team won the class, finishing two laps clear of their closest rivals.
In 2017 Stevens also finished second in the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup, including his first GT3 win at Zolder with team-mate Markus Winkelhock. Following the Le Mans victory, JMW Motorsport invited Stevens to race in the final two races of the European Le Mans Series, helping the team finish second at Spa-Francorchamps and Algarve to take first in the GTE standings.
From 2018, Stevens joined the Panis-Barthez LMP2 team for the 2018 European Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Since 2018 he has worked with McLaren as a test and development driver, primarily in simulator work. In July 2022, McLaren announced Stevens would drive the McLaren MCL35 2021 car at a private test at Portimao circuit between 11 and 13 July.
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