Misplaced Pages

Santiago Urrutia
Santiago Urrutia at the 2017 Freedom 100
Nationality	Uruguayan
Born	(1996-08-30) 30 August 1996 (age 28) Miguelete, Uruguay
Indy Lights career
Debut season	2016
Current team	HMD Motorsports
Car number	55
Former teams	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Belardi Auto Racing
Starts	51
Wins	8
Poles	5
Fastest laps	6
Best finish	2nd in 2016, 2017
Previous series
2015 2014 2013 2012 2011	Pro Mazda Championship GP3 Series European F3 Open Formula Abarth Formula Abarth
Championship titles
2015	Pro Mazda Championship

Santiago Urrutia Lausarot (born 30 August 1996) is a Uruguayan racing driver. He currently competes in the World Touring Car Cup, driving for Cyan Performance Lynk & Co. He formerly competed in Indy Lights, and was the 2015 Pro Mazda series champion.

Racing career

Karting and junior formulae

Urrutia's motorsport career started at age three in dirt motorcycling on his grandfather's farm, and later moved up to go-kart racing in his native Uruguay at age five. In 2009 he won the Argentine Pre Junior Championship and the Metropolitan Mini Junior Apertura Championship. In 2010 he won the Uruguayan Master Championship.

At the 2010 Karting World Championship, he qualified 5th for the pre-final, but was involved in two incidents and finished the final in 18th place. At age 14, Urrutia moved to Italy in 2011 and competed at the WSK Euro Series KF3. Also in 2011 he took part in the Formula Abarth season. He won Formula Abarth Rookie of the year in 2012, and participated in the Ferrari Diving Academy.

In 2013 he took part in the European F3 Open Championship, winning races at Algarve International Circuit and Silverstone Circuit. In 2014, he competed in the GP3 Series for Finnish team Koiranen GP.

Road to Indy

He took part in the Pro Mazda Championship in 2015 as a driver for Team Pelfrey. He clinched the championship at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, sixteen years and one day after the death of fellow Uruguayan Gonzalo Rodríguez in a practice accident at the same venue. With the championship, Urrutia became the first Uruguayan to win a major international racing championship.

In 2016, he competed in Indy Lights for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. He was placed on probation by the series in June. A weekend sweep at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in July led Urrutia to the top of the point standings. Urrutia was in the hunt for the series title until the final pair of races of the season, where he ultimately lost the championship to Ed Jones by two points after Jones' teammate let him by to win the title. With SPM discontinuing their Indy Lights team, Urrutia returned to the series in 2017 as a Belardi Auto Racing driver. He scored two wins and six second place finishes, finishing runner-up in the standings to Kyle Kaiser.

At the end of 2017, Urrutia entered into a handshake deal to drive the 2018 IndyCar Series season for Harding Racing, but the team eventually rescinded on the offer and failed to pay Urrutia a $100,000 sum for the driver to compete with Belardi in Indy Lights for the season. He did, however, run a full Indy Lights season with Belardi in 2018.

Touring cars

In 2019, Urrutia raced in the European TCR series for Team WRT, finishing third in the standings and earning Rookie of the Year.

He was due to return to the Indy Lights with HMD Motorsport in 2020, but the season was cancelled due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Instead, he contested the opening round of the Formula Regional Americas Championship in its place, scoring a podium finish. The Uruguayan then took part in a test for Cyan Racing's World Touring Car Cup team, and was later signed for their 2020 campaign alongside Thed Björk.

In 2020, Urrutia competed the whole of the championship for the Cyan Performance Lynk & Co team, ending up in 6th place in the standings. He had a number of podiums and won the last race of the season.

In 2021 he continued to compete for the same team in WTCR. He won two races and had three other podium finishes, ending the championship in 5th place. He also did some races in the South American TCR championship.

In 2022 he remained with the same team for his third year in the series. Though he won two races and had another podium place, his season was stopped when the team withdrew from the championship due to safety concerns with the tyres.

In 2023 he remained again with Cyan Performance Lynk & Co. He retired from the first of two races at the initial round in Portugal, but won the second race. He won two more races that season, on home soil in Uruguay and at the Bathurst International, to finish eighth in the standings.

Racing record

Career summary

As Urrutia was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.

Complete GP3 Series results

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

American open-wheel racing results

Pro Mazda Championship

Indy Lights

Complete TCR Europe Touring Car Series results

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

Driver was a World Tour full-time entry and was ineligible for points.

Complete World Touring Car Cup results

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

Complete TCR World Tour results

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

Complete Stock Car Pro Series results

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

References

1. McCubbin, Ashley (5 March 2020). "Ashley Asks... Santiago Urrutia". Popular Speed. Archived from the original on 29 September 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
2. ^ "Santi es un ejemplo de que a los 16 años, las cosas a veces se ven muy claras". Motormario (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 September 2020.
3. "Santi is 16 and he knows where he is going". Motormario.com. 5 April 2013. (in Spanish)
4. "RP Motorsport confirms its driver line-up for 2013". European F3 Open Championship. GT Sport. 31 January 2013. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
5. "Uruguayo Santiago Urrutia ganó la carrera de Fórmula 3". Subrayado (in Spanish). 11 May 2013. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
6. "Victoria de Santiago Urrutia en Silverstone". Motormario (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 September 2020.
7. "Santiago Urrutia se une a Koiranen en GP3". Motor y Racing. 20 March 2014. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
8. DiZinno, Tony (12 September 2015). "Santi Urrutia claims Pro Mazda title in dramatic fashion at Mazda Raceway". NBC Sports. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
9. "Pro Mazda champion Urrutia Set to race with Schmidt Peterson team". NTT IndyCar Series. 18 February 2016. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
10. "Santiago Urrutia a la IndyLights". Velocidad Total. Velocidad Total. 27 January 2016. Retrieved 27 January 2016. (in Spanish)
11. Barnes, Joey (27 June 2016). "Indy Lights Puts Three Drivers on Probation". Motorsports Tribune. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
12. "Double Win for Urrutia Vaults Him into Indy Lights Points Lead". Motorsports Tribune. 31 July 2016. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
13. DeHarde, Christopher (25 October 2016). "The 2016 Indy Lights Championship Review: Santiago Urrutia". Motorsports Tribune. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
14. Faturos, Federico (30 December 2016). "Urrutia seguirá en Indy Lights para 2017". Motorsport (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 September 2020.
15. Eubanks, Michael (4 February 2020). "Santiago Urrutia to make Indy Lights return with HMD Motorsports". Motor Sports Talk. NBC Sports. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
16. "Santiago Urrutia says IndyCar got another black eye with O'Ward". AutoRacing1. 12 February 2019. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
17. "Santi Urrutia returns to Belardi and sets the best test time of the Indy Lights test". Formula Rapida. 28 February 2018. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
18. Brunsdon, Stephen (13 October 2019). "Santiago Urrutia eyes WTCR 2020 graduation". Touring Car Times. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
19. "Santiago Urrutia Joins HMD Motorsports". Indy Lights. 3 February 2020. Archived from the original on 13 September 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
20. Ryan, Nate (1 June 2020). "Indy Lights announces cancellation of 2020 season; will return in 2021". NBC Sports. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
21. "Santiago Urrutia completes Lynk & Co Cyan Racing line-up". TouringCarTimes. 28 July 2020.

External links

• Official website
• Santiago Urrutia career summary at DriverDB.com

• 1996 births
• Living people
• Sportspeople from Colonia Department
• Uruguayan racing drivers
• Formula Abarth drivers
• Euroformula Open Championship drivers
• GP3 Series drivers
• Indy Pro 2000 Championship drivers
• Indy Lights drivers
• World Touring Car Cup drivers
• Súper TC 2000 drivers
• Formula Regional Americas Championship drivers
• BVM Racing drivers
• RP Motorsport drivers
• Koiranen GP drivers
• Team Pelfrey drivers
• Belardi Auto Racing drivers
• W Racing Team drivers
• Arrow McLaren SP drivers
• Karting World Championship drivers
• TCR Europe Touring Car Series drivers
• HMD Motorsports drivers
• TCR South America Touring Car Championship drivers
• TCR Italian Touring Car Championship drivers
• Toyota Gazoo Racing drivers
• TC 2000 Championship drivers
• Cyan Racing drivers
• TCR Australia Touring Car Series drivers
• Stock Car Brasil drivers