Lynk & Co Cyan Racing has confirmed Uruguayan racer Santiago Urrutia as its fourth driver for the 2020 FIA World Touring Car Cup season, taking the seat vacated by Andy Priaulx.
Urrutia, 23, joins the WTCR grid off the back of one season racing in the TCR Europe series in 2019, when he was at the wheel of an Audi RS3 LMS.
The former single-seater racer finished third overall in last year’s TCR Europe drivers’ championship, with his consistency carrying him to a strong classification despite failing to take a win.
“I’m super happy to join Cyan Racing,” said Urrutia, who was second overall in the 2016 and 2017 Indy Lights series in the USA. “It’s very emotional for me and for my whole country as I’m first to become professional racing driver in Uruguay.
“I’m obviously young and I want to race in the WTCR with Cyan Racing for many, many years. I am really grateful to have got this opportunity and trust from the team and I will give all to live up to the expectations.
“It’s not going to be easy, but that is why I love racing. I have done a lot of preparations in the simulator and we are going to test on some of the circuits from the calendar, so I feel confident for the season.”
Urrutia recently took part in a test with three other drivers for Cyan Racing at the Anderstorp Raceway in Sweden, where the team was evaluating its driver options to complete its lineup alongside Thed Björk, Yvan Muller and Yann Ehrlacher.
“We are very happy to have Santiago with us and we are delighted to welcome him as a key player in our 2020 WTCR title bid,” said Christian Dahl, CEO and founder of Cyan Racing.
“We decided to go with Santiago as he showed strong potential during the test,” added Fredrik Wahlén, Cyan Racing Managing Director. “He got along really well with the team and he was fast in the car straight away.”
Urrutia will line-up as Björk’s team-mate, with the Swede seeing similarities in the Uruguayan’s racing background to his own.
“I am very happy to get ‘Santi’ as my team-mate, he is super-dedicated, and his background is a little bit like mine,” said Björk.
“He is super-fast, and I really look forward to work with him and to get to know him better.”
The WTCR season gets underway at the Salzburgring in Austria on 12 – 13 September.