Santiago Urrutia Lausarot (born 30 August 1996) is an Uruguayan

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

. He currently competes 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 ...

, driving for Cyan Performance Lynk & Co. He formerly competed in

Indy Lights Indy NXT, previously Indy Lights, is an American developmental automobile racing series sanctioned by IndyCar, currently known as Firestone Indy NXT Series for sponsorship reasons. Indy Lights is the highest step on the Road to Indy, a program ...

, 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 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 ful ...

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 it 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 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 ...

, winning races at

Algarve International Circuit The Algarve International Circuit ( pt, Autódromo Internacional do Algarve), commonly referred to as Portimão Circuit, is a race circuit located in Portimão, Algarve region, Portugal. The development includes a karting track, off-road tra ...

and

Silverstone Circuit Silverstone Circuit is a motor racing circuit in England, near the Northamptonshire villages of Towcester, Silverstone and Whittlebury. It is the home of the British Grand Prix, which it first hosted as the 1948 British Grand Prix. The 1950 ...

. In 2014, he competed in the

GP3 Series The GP3 Series, or GP3 for short, was a single-seater motor racing series launched in 2010 as a feeder series for the GP2 Series, introduced by GP2 organiser Bruno Michel. GP3 followed the entire European leg of the Formula One series and the ...

for Finnish team

Koiranen GP Koiranen Kemppi Motorsport, formerly also known as Koiranen bros. Motorsport and Koiranen GP, is a Finnish auto racing team based in Lahti, Finland. The team currently fields a one car entry in the LMP3 class of Asian Le Mans Series and Prototype ...

Road to Indy

He took part in the

Pro Mazda Championship The USF Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires, formerly known as the Star Mazda Championship, Pro Mazda Championship, and later Indy Pro 2000 Championship, is an Open-wheel car, open-wheel racing series serving as the third step on th ...

in 2015 as a driver for

Team Pelfrey Team Pelfrey is an American racing team in the F1600 Championship Series and F2000 Championship Series. The team is owned by Dale Pelfrey. Indy Racing League (1998–2000) John Paul Jr. replaced Danny Ongais as driver for the 1998 Indianapolis 5 ...

. He clinched the championship at

Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca Laguna Seca Raceway (branded as WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, and previously Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca) is a paved road racing track in central California used for both auto racing and motorcycle racing, built in 1957 near both Salinas and M ...

, 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 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

, he competed in Indy Lights for

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports The IndyCar Series operation of McLaren Racing competes under the banner of Arrow McLaren SP. This entry is based in Indianapolis and was founded by former driver Sam Schmidt as Sam Schmidt Motorsports. Fellow ex-driver Davey Hamilton joined a ...

. He was placed on probation by the series in June. A weekend sweep at the

Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is a road course auto racing facility located in Troy Township, Morrow County, Ohio, United States, just outside the village of Lexington. Mid-Ohio has also colloquially become a term for the entire north-central regio ...

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 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

as a

Belardi Auto Racing Belardi Auto Racing was an American racing team in the Indy Lights series. The team was owned by Brian Belardi, who competed in SCCA. Belardi was previously located in Illinois before moving to Brownsburg, Indiana. Indy Lights 2011-2013 Jorge ...

driver. He scored two wins and six second place finishes, finishing runner-up in the standings to

Kyle Kaiser Kyle Kaiser (born March 5, 1996) is an American racing driver from Santa Clara, California, and won the 2017 Indy Lights Championship with Juncos Racing. He is also currently enrolled in classes part-time at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, ...

5 Santiago Urrutia 2018 Road America Grand Prix

At the end of 2017, Urrutia entered into a handshake deal to drive the 2018 IndyCar Series season for

Harding Racing Harding Racing logo prior to partnership Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport was an auto racing team that competed in the IndyCar Series. Founded as Harding Racing in 2017 by businessman Mike Harding, the team would form partnerships in 2019 ...

, 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 The COVID-19 pandemic in the United States is a part of the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In the Uni ...

. Instead, he contested the opening round of the

Formula Regional Americas Championship The Formula Regional Americas Championship powered by Honda (formerly the F3 Americas Championship powered by Honda) is an FIA Formula Regional racing series that competes in the United States, with plans in the future to race in Canada and Mexic ...

in its place, scoring a podium finish. The Uruguayan then took part in a test for

Cyan Racing Cyan Racing is the official motorsport partner to Geely Group Motorsport, formerly the Volvo factory auto racing team, and runs the FIA WTCR programme for Lynk & Co, based in Gothenburg, Sweden. The team’s current drivers are Thed Björk, Yv ...

team, and was later signed for their

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

campaign alongside

Thed Björk Thed Björk (born 14 December 1980 in Vretstorp, Örebro) is a Swedish racing driver, and 2017 World Touring Car Champion. Other notable titles include the 2006 Swedish Touring Car Championship and the 2013, 2014 and 2015 Scandinavian Touring ...

. 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.

Racing record

Career summary

^* Season still in progress.

Complete GP3 Series 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)

American open-wheel racing results

Pro Mazda Championship

Indy Lights

Complete TCR Europe Touring Car Series results

(

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

Complete World Touring Car Cup results

(

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

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Urrutia, Santiago 1996 births Living people People 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