William Bratt (born 13 April 1988 in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

) is a British racing driver. He previously competed in the

British Touring Car Championship The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by TOCA. It was established in 1958 as the British Saloon Car Championship and was renamed as ...

with Rob Austin Racing.

Career

T Cars

After three years in Super 1 karting, Bratt moved into the

T Cars T Cars was a saloon car-based motor racing series based in the United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western co ...

series for drivers between fourteen and seventeen years old, in 2003. He finished fourth in the championship in his rookie season, winning a single race at

Snetterton Snetterton is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England. The village is about east-northeast of Thetford and southwest of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of . The 2011 Census recorded a parish population of 201 people living in 74 h ...

. He dominated the 2004 season, finishing every one of the eighteen races on the podium, winning fourteen of them to win the championship by 58 points from runner-up Ruth Senior.

Formula Renault

After his T Car championship, Bratt moved into single-seaters for the 2004

Formula Renault UK Winter Series British Formula Renault Championship referred to one of two Formula Renault championships that were held in the United Kingdom. The main series was Renault Sport UK's Formula Renault 2.0 UK championship which was held from 1989 to 2011 and was g ...

, with Scorpio Motorsport. He finished eleventh in the championship, missing out on the top ten by just one point. This performance led to a full season campaign in 2005, staying with Scorpio. After a steady opening, Bratt recorded a best finish of eleventh twice before finishing fifteenth in the championship, and runner-up in the Graduate Cup for first-year drivers. He continued with Scorpio into the 2005 Winter Series, finishing ninth with 54 points. Another campaign with Scorpio followed in 2006, and Bratt's results steadily improved resulting in a first win at

Oulton Park Oulton Park is a hard surfaced track used for motor racing, close to the village of Little Budworth, Cheshire, England. It is about from Winsford, from Chester city centre, from Northwich and from Warrington, with a nearby rail connection al ...

. He also finished on the podium at Donington Park en route to eighth place in the championship. With six of the seven drivers who finished above him in 2006 moving out of the championship, Bratt became a championship contender for the 2007 season. Good starts from championship rivals

Duncan Tappy Duncan Tappy (born 26 June 1984 in West Ewell, Surrey) is a professional racing driver from the United Kingdom. Racing career Early career Tappy began his racing career in karting, finishing runner-up in the 2004 UK Formula Ford championshi ...

and

Dean Smith Dean Edwards Smith (February 28, 1931 – February 7, 2015) was an American men's college basketball head coach. Called a "coaching legend" by the Basketball Hall of Fame, he coached for 36 years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel H ...

left Bratt on the back foot after the first few rounds. After achieving a double win at

Croft Croft may refer to: Occupations * Croft (land), a small area of land, often with a crofter's dwelling * Crofting, small-scale food production * Bleachfield, an open space used for the bleaching of fabric, also called a croft Locations In the Uni ...

, he added further wins at Oulton Park and

Brands Hatch Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently host ...

, but he was out of the championship running before the final few races such were the dominance of the Fortec cars of his rivals. Bratt was unopposed in third, finishing some 32 points clear of

Adam Christodoulou Adam Robert Christodoulou (born 11 June 1989, in Lichfield) is a Greek-British racing driver, who won the 2008 British Formula Renault Championship, also won the 2009 Star Mazda Championship in the United States. His less successful cousin Ri ...

. His performances earned him a place on the

British Racing Drivers' Club The British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC) is an exclusive invitation-only members club for racecar drivers who are judged to have achieved success in the upper levels of motor sport for a number of seasons. Except under exceptional circumstances, me ...

's "Rising Star" scheme. In the off-season, Bratt competed in the

Formula Palmer Audi Formula Palmer Audi, officially abbreviated to FPA, and sometimes informally abbreviated to Palmer Audi, was a one-make class of open wheel Formula racing founded in 1998 by former Formula One driver, Jonathan Palmer. It was based in the United ...

Autumn Trophy, finishing second in the series without winning a race. He also made a return to Formula Renault in the 2008 season, replacing Sho Hanawa at the Silverstone meeting in support of the

World Series by Renault The Renault Sport Series (formerly known as World Series by Renault) is a motor racing series. The series latterly consisted of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, and used to contain the Renault Sport Trophy and the Formula Renault 3.5 Series. ...

Formula Three

Bratt moved to Spain to compete in the

Spanish Formula Three Championship The Euroformula Open Championship (formerly the Spanish Formula Three Championship, European F3 Open Championship) is a junior formula racing series based in Spain. It was one of six national and international Formula Three championships in Europe ...

for the 2008 season, competing for former

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

driver

Emilio de Villota Emilio de Villota Ruíz (born 26 July 1946) is a former racing driver from Spain, born in Madrid. He entered 15 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix between 1976 and 1982, qualifying twice. He entered most Spanish Grand Prix between 1976 ...

's team. After two top-five finishes on his debut at

Jarama Jarama () is a river in central Spain. It flows north to south, and passes east of Madrid where the El Atazar Dam is built on a tributary, the Lozoya River. It flows into the river Tagus in Aranjuez. The Manzanares is a tributary of the Jaram ...

, Bratt recorded both his first pole position and podium during the first race at Spa. After a barren run of just seven points in ten races, Bratt ended the season impressively with a pair of second places and a pair of third places at the final two rounds in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

and

Jerez Jerez de la Frontera (), or simply Jerez (), is a Spanish city and municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, in southwestern Spain, located midway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Cádiz Mountains. , the c ...

, ultimately finishing fifth in the overall championship.

Euroseries 3000

Bratt continued with de Villota's team, moving into the Euroseries 3000 for the 2009 season. Heading into the final round, Bratt was one of four drivers who could still win the title as he was only six points behind championship leader Fabio Onidi. Bratt finished first and second in the two races, with his second-place finish breaking a tie with

Marco Bonanomi Marco Bonanomi (born 12 March 1985 in Lecco) is an Italian professional racing driver. Career Formula Renault Bonanomi began his car racing career in 2001 by competing in a few rounds of the Formula Renault Eurocup and Italian Formula Rena ...

. Both drivers finished with 71 points and four wins, but Bratt's second gave him a 3–2 advantage in relation to the championship. Not only winning the Euroseries 3000 title, Bratt also won the Italian Formula 3000 Championship crown.

GP2 Series

As a prize for winning the Euroseries 3000 title, Bratt won a drive in the

GP2 Asia Series The GP2 Asia Series was a form of open wheel motor racing as a result of a spin-off from the GP2 series. The series was officially announced during the weekend of the 2007 Monaco Grand Prix. GP2 series organiser Bruno Michel commented that "It ...

for the 2009–10 season with Euroseries 3000 organisers

Coloni Motorsport Coloni Motorsport, also known as Scuderia Coloni, was an auto racing team from Italy. Formed by Enzo Coloni in 1983, the team participated in Formula Three between 1983 and 1986, before racing in Formula One as Enzo Coloni Racing Car Systems bet ...

Formula Two

Bratt moved into the

FIA Formula Two Championship The FIA Formula 2 Championship is a second-tier single-seater championship organised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Held on road racing, racing circuits, the championship was introduced in 2017, following the rebrandi ...

in 2010. He was the only driver disqualified from a race that season. Bratt was disqualified from the second race at Silverstone having failed to obey a drive-through penalty and being black flagged – he finished second but received no points. Bratt came 9th in the championship out of 30 drivers with 92 points despite missing 8 out of the 16 rounds.

British Touring Car Championship

Rob Austin Racing (2012–2013)

Bratt made his touring car debut with Rob Austin Racing at the

round of the 2012 season. He finished eighth on his début in the

Audi A4 The Audi A4 is a line of compact executive cars produced since 1994 by the German car manufacturer Audi, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. The A4 has been built in five generations and is based on the Volkswagen Group B platform. The first ...

and won Dunlop's "Most Improved Independent Driver Award". He stayed with the team for the next round at

but was unable to secure the sponsorship to continue in the championship at

. He returned to the team for the final three events of the season starting at Rockingham. He qualified a season best thirteenth on the grid at the final round at

and finished ninth in the first race before retiring from the second race having collided with the stricken BMW of

Rob Collard Robert Collard (born 1 October 1968) is a British auto racing driver from Hampshire, best known for racing in the British Touring Car Championship, winning two races in a West Surrey Racing MG, and claiming the Independent's Cup title in 2003. ...

. Bratt concluded the season 20th in the drivers standings after contesting half of the events. Bratt will continue in the championship for the 2013 season with Rob Austin Racing, now competing under the WIX Racing banner.

Racing record

Career summary

^† As Bratt was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score points. Season still in progress.

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

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

Complete FIA Formula Two Championship results

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

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position – 1 point awarded in first race) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap – 1 point awarded all races) (* signifies that driver lead race for at least one lap – 1 point given)

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results

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

Personal

Bratt attended

Bloxham School Bloxham School, also called All Saints' School, is an independent co-educational day and boarding school of the British public school tradition, located in the village of Bloxham, three miles (5 km) from the town of Banbury in Oxfordshir ...

, Oxfordshire and has a degree in history from Lincoln College, Oxford. Will Bratt is also a musician (guitarist and writer) and plays in the popular Oxfordshire-based cover band Mr Blue and Little Liars.

References

External links

Official website

Career statistics from Driver Database

Creative Agency of Will Bratt
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bratt, Will 1988 births Living people Sportspeople from Banbury Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford English racing drivers British Formula Renault 2.0 drivers Formula Palmer Audi drivers Euroformula Open Championship drivers Auto GP drivers GP2 Asia Series drivers FIA Formula Two Championship drivers People educated at Bloxham School British Touring Car Championship drivers Blancpain Endurance Series drivers 24 Hours of Spa drivers Porsche Carrera Cup GB drivers Pons Racing drivers Scuderia Coloni drivers De Villota Motorsport drivers United Autosports drivers