Josep "Pepe" Oriola Vila (born 9 July 1994) is a Spanish racing driver. He became the youngest driver to race in the World Touring Car Championship when he competed in the 2011 season. Oriola is not only the youngest driver to start a WTCC race at the age of 16, he’s also the youngest to be on the podium and to have won a race. Feats he achieved in Brazil in 2011 and Morocco in 2013 respectively. His record of being the youngest driver ever to compete, score championship points and win a race in the prestigious WTCC remains to this day. In 2018 he competed in the

World Touring Car Cup The FIA World Touring Car Cup (abbreviated to WTCR, referring to the use of TCR regulations) was an international touring car championship promoted by Eurosport Events and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It ...

and finish 6th in a close title fight till the last rounds in Macau. In 2019 he switches from factory driver of CUPRA to Hyundai Motorsport. Oriola also won the 1st ever 24h race of only TCR Cars in

Spa Francorchamps The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (), frequently referred to as ''Spa'', is a motor-racing circuit located in Stavelot, Belgium. It is the current venue of the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix, hosting its first Grand Prix in 1925, and has held ...

in 2019 with the team Red Camel-Jordans. He is part of the team Changan Ford in China Touring Car Championship CTCC where in 2019 won 3 races.

Career

Early years

Born in Barcelona, Oriola began his career in

karting Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on f ...

in 2004 at the age of nine. He switched to

touring cars Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition with heavily modified road-going cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States. While the cars do not move ...

at the end of 2009 at the age of 15 when he competed in the final round of the

SEAT León Supercopa The SEAT León Supercopa was a one-make racing series, organised by SEAT Sport, the motorsport division of Spanish car manufacturer SEAT. It used a modified version of the SEAT León road car, and championships have been run in Spain, Germany, Ita ...

Spain, finishing on the podium. In 2010 he competed in full seasons of both the Spanish Supercopa and

SEAT León Eurocup The SEAT León Eurocup was a one-make racing, one-make touring car racing series which uses SEAT Leóns, run by SEAT Sport. Background The championship began in 2008, making its debut at Circuit de Valencia, as a support series for the World To ...

with the Monlau Competition team. He took his first victory at the second Eurocup race at Brands Hatch, which was shortened due to a heavy accident involving Francisco Carvalho. He then took a double victory at the season finale at Valencia to move up to fourth in the final Eurocup standings. He also finished fourth in the Supercopa standings.

World Touring Car Championship

In 2011 Oriola raced a

SEAT León The SEAT León (), also spelled Leon in some other languages (named after the city of León, which also means "Lion" in Spanish), is a hatchback compact car built by the Spanish car manufacturer SEAT since October 1999.ETKA The first two León ...

in the World Touring Car Championship for

Sunred Engineering Sunred (short for ''Sun Race Engineering Development S.L.'') is a Spanish-based auto racing team and constructor. They are best known for competing in the World Touring Car Championship. Racing History While in the past Sunred had participated in ...

. He became the youngest ever driver in the series when he made his debut, aged 16 years, 8 months and 11 days at the

2011 FIA WTCC Race of Brazil The 2011 FIA WTCC Race of Brazil was the opening round of the 2011 World Touring Car Championship season and the sixth running of the FIA WTCC Race of Brazil. It was held at the Autódromo Internacional de Curitiba near Curitiba, Brazil on 20 Mar ...

. He scored his first points in the second race of the season at Curitiba. Pepe Oriola 2012 WTCC Race of Japan (Practice 2)

Oriola will continue in the WTCC in 2012, staying with Sunred but now racing under the Tuenti Racing Team banner. He left the first round in Italy in a three way tie for first place in the Yokohama Trophy with

Stefano D'Aste Stefano D'Aste (born 26 February 1974 in Genoa) is an Italian auto racing driver. His early racing career included competing on motorcycles and the Monza International Rally. He has competed in the World Touring Car Championship between 2004 (wh ...

and Alex MacDowall, having started from the class pole position in race one. He took his first overall podium finish in race two of the Race of Portugal. Oriola spent much of the season at the top of the Yokohama Trophy but dropped behind Norbert Michelisz in the standings after the Race of Brazil. He took his second podium finish of the season in race two of the Race of Japan with second place behind

having started from that position on the reversed grid. Oriola stayed in the WTCC for the 2013 season driving for the Tuenti Racing Team. He would not be eligible for the Yokohama Trophy as the team was now run by SEAT Sport. At the season opening Race of Italy he qualified fourth as the best placed SEAT driver on the grid. He retired from race one with a puncture having been running fifth and finished sixth in race two. On 7 April 2013 at the Race of Morocco he became the youngest person to win a WTCC race when he claimed victory in race two. After the Race of Russia, Oriola confirmed he would be switching to a Chevrolet Cruze car for the following round in Portugal.

Racing record

Complete World Touring Car Championship results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) ^† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 75% of the race distance.

Complete TCR International Series results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) ^† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

Complete World Touring Car Cup results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) ^† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

TCR Spa 500 results

Complete TCR Europe Touring Car Series results

(

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

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oriola, Pepe 1994 births Living people Racing drivers from Barcelona Spanish racing drivers SEAT León Eurocup drivers European Touring Car Cup drivers World Touring Car Championship drivers TCR International Series drivers World Touring Car Cup drivers 24H Series drivers Campos Racing drivers TCR Asia Series drivers KCMG drivers