WILL Stevens is adamant he is not putting his life on the line when he makes his Formula One debut this weekend.

The 23-year-old driver, who was born in Rochford, has been thrust into the spotlight after his sponsors agreed to stump up £500,000 to get him into the vacant Caterham seat.

The Leafield-based marque are back on the grid after being allowed to skip the last two races after falling into administration.

After raising nearly £2million to date via a crowdfunding project to ensure they take part in this weekend's race in Abu Dhabi, Caterham are back in the public eye.

Co-administrator and interim team principal Finbarr O'Connell hopes an investor will now come forward to take the team on into 2015 and beyond.

For now, at the Yas Marina circuit, it is Stevens and Kamui Kobayashi who will attempt to fly the flag.

The cars, though, have been in storage and untouched since the team went into administration in mid-October.

That was just a few days after the Russian Grand Prix where Kobayashi had admitted to being scared to drive as a part had been patched up as there were no spares.

But Stevens, who was only granted his required superlicence by the FIA this morning, has no fears getting into the car.

"I can't speak for what happened before, but I know what we have here and I'm sure everything is fine and I feel comfortable in going out there and pushing to the limit," said Stevens, who lived in Hadleigh before moving to Surrey as a teenager.

"Everyone here wants the car to be safe and to finish the race, that is the number one priority in every single team.

"I'm absolutely certain there are no issues at all with the car or anything around it.

"Clearly the number one thing is reliability. These guys have enough experience to know what they have to do, with the main priority then to finish."

Stevens, who clocked up 1100 kilometres for Caterham over two young driver tests last year and this summer, and who this season has been competing in the World Series by Renault 3.5 championship, is in no doubt he is ready to take to the track in F1.

"I've done the tests, been working with these guys for a long time, been driving since I was 10 and done six years of car racing, so I feel like I've a lot of experience," added Stevens.

"I'm going into the last race, which is not the easiest situation, but when you get an opportunity like this you need to take it with both hands, and I'm sure I can go out and do a good job."

Stevens was a pupil at Thorpe Hall School in Southend and started his career in karting.

He moved into single seaters and has spent the last few seasons progressing through the World Series by Renault series.

The 23-year-old  is currently driving for Strakka Racing in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series and is sixth in the championship standings.