Will Power (born March 1, 1981 in Toowoomba, Queensland) is an Australian motorsport driver, who currently competes in the IndyCar Series.
He won the 2002 Australian Drivers' Championship by winning 7 times and achieving 3 pole positions.
During 2005 he competed in the World Series by Renault for the Carlin Motorsport team, where he proved very competitive. During the course of the WSR championship he scored 2 race victories, with 4 trips to the podium in total and qualified his car on the front row 5 times. In addition to driving in the WSR, Power was also one of the featured drivers for the Australian team in the 2005-06 A1 Grand Prix series. Power raced in the series opener at Brands Hatch and piloted Australia to a second place finish behind Team Brazil.
Power drove full time for Team Australia in 2006. He performed well throughout the season with nine top ten finishes and strong qualifying results. At Mexico, the final round of the season, Power took his first podium finish in Champ Car. He won the "rookie of the year" award and finished in 6th place in the championship standings.
In his home race in 2006, at Surfers Paradise in Australia, he scored his first pole position of his career in Champ Cars, in front of his home crowd. However, contact from Paul Tracy in pit lane and then an ambitious overtaking move by Sébastien Bourdais resulted in a bent left steering arm, and he fell to the back, one lap down by the time the car was repaired, eventually finishing 12th.
On 8 April 2007, Power won his first Champ Car race at the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix, held in the streets of Las Vegas. He qualified on pole position and led most laps, becoming the first Australian driver to win in the series. On July 8th, at the Steelback Grand Prix of Toronto, with rain pouring down and visibility near zero when he got behind other cars, Will Power decided it was time to get aggressive. The Australian drove from fourth to first in 14 laps, finally splashing past rookie Ryan Dalziel to take the lead with 23 minutes to go, and went on to an easy victory.
To get to the lead, Power also had to pass three-time Champ Car World Series champion Sebastien Bourdais and rookie Neel Jani. Thanks to a series of late caution flags, he was able to go after each of them in turn. "I was close behind Sebastien and I knew he was quite tentative in the wet and I attacked him," Power said. "I got him on a restart. Then the next restart, I got Neel and the next restart, I got Dalziel. It's just about being aggressive at the right time and not hitting anyone". "I just drove so hard here because we've just had so much bad luck in the last few races," said Power, whose first Champ Car victory came in the 2007 opener in Las Vegas. "I didn't care; I just went hard. The car was good in the wet. It was good in the dry, and we stuck it to them." Power had podium finishes at Long Beach, Mont-Tremblant and Mexico City and pole positions at Houston, Edmonton, Surfers Paradise and Mexico City to place fourth in the final point standings in 2007.
The merger of Champ Car and the IRL left his future uncertain. Unrelated to this, his Walker Racing team announced they would not be making the switch from Champ Car to IRL due to lack of sponsorship.. However, Power later signed with KV Racing Technology, to drive the No. 8 Aussie Vineyards -- Team Australia car in 2008, continuing to work with Team Australia boss Craig Gore.
Power won the final Champ Car race at Long Beach in 2008, also giving Power his first IndyCar Series win. He scored two top-five finishes in IndyCar Series races, enough for 12th overall.
| Series | Year | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | Team | Rank | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1GP | 2005/06 | AUS | BRH1 4 | LAU1 | EST1 | ECR1 | SEP1 | DUB1 | DUR1 | SEN1 | MON1 | LAG1 | SHA1 | AUS | 13th | 51 |
BRH2 2 | LAU2 | EST2 | ECR2 | SEP2 | DUB2 | DUR2 | SEN2 | MON2 | LAG2 | SHA2 |
| Year | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | Team | Rank | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Team Australia | LBH | MTY | MIL | POR | CLE | TOR | EDM | SJO | DEN | MTL | LVG | SRF Ret | MXC 10 | Team Australia | 22nd | 17 | |
| 2006 | Team Australia | LBH 9 | HOU 7 | MTY 11 | MIL Ret | POR 18 | CLE 9 | TOR 7 | EDM 6 | SJO 6 | DEN 4 | MTL 5 | ROA 13 | SRF 12 | MXC 3 | Team Australia | 6th | 213 |
| 2007 | Team Australia | LVG 1 | LBH 3 | HOU 11 | POR 4 | CLE 10 | MTT 3 | TOR 1 | EDM Ret | SJO 4 | ROA Ret | ZOL 4 | ASN 14 | SRF Ret | MXC 2 | Team Australia | 4th | 262 |
| Year | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | Rank | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | KV Racing | HMS Ret | STP 8 | MOT1 DNP | LBH1 1 | KAN Ret | INDY 13 | MIL 14 | TXS 13 | IOW 9 | RIR Ret | WGL 15 | NSH 11 | MDO 4 | EDM 22 | KTY Ret | SNM 25 | DET 8 | CHI 5 | SRF2 | 12th | 331 |
| Years | Teams | Races | Poles | Wins | Podiums (Non-win) | Top 10s (Non-podium) | Indianapolis 500 Wins | Championships |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 17 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Series | Seasons | Races | Poles | Wins | Podiums (Non-win) | Point Finishes (Non-podium) | Teams | Total Points | Championships | Best Finish (Championship) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Formula Ford | 2 | 28 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 1 | 304 | 0 | 2nd (2001) |
| Formula Holden | 1 | 11 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 197 | 1 | 1st (2002) |
| Australian F3 | 1 | 12 | unk | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 204 | 0 | 2nd (2002) |
| V8Supercar | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 82 | 0 | 45th (2002) |
| British F3 | 2 | 42 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 14 | 3 | 151 | 0 | 9th (2004) |
| WSBR | 1 | 15 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 64 | 0 | 7th (2005) |
| A1GP | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 0 | 13th (2005/06) |
| CCWS | 3 | 30 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 24 | 1 | 492 | 0 | 4th (2007) |
Complete through 2007.