European Open F3 driver Igor Urien presents his latest campaign at AIC

European Open F3 driver Igor Urien presents his latest campaign at AIC

Urien set to assess Formula Student teams | 19/04/2013

Boroa, 19.4.2013--- F3 driver Igor Urien presented his campaign in European Open F3 for the 2013 season at AIC-Automotive Intelligence Center today. Among those at the event were Biscay Council chief executive José Luís Bilbao and former F1 driver Emilio de Villota.

This year Urien will be driving in the European F3 Open for Emilio de Villota’s Motorsport team, one of the foremost in the category. The European F3 Open assures Igor a solid three-year improvement program: the first step is clearly to get a foothold in this highly competitive environment, and then to be a contender for the title in 2014. In 2015, after two years in the category, he should be in a position to fight for a place in the World Series by Renault.

As part of an agreement with AIC, Urien is to assess the two Basque Formula Student teams (Formula Student Bizkaia-Bilbao Higher Technical School of Engineering and Guipúzcoa’s Tecnun Motorsport) on driving-related issues and technical aspects of the vehicles they produce.

Formula Student is an apprenticeship program organized by IMechE (Institution of Mechanical Engineers) in the UK designed to train the engineering talents of the future. More than 100 universities from all over Europe, the US and Australia are involved in the program.

Born in Abadiño, not far from Bilbao, on 27 December 1994, Igor Urien drove his first go-kart at the age of seven, and soon started competing in the Novice category. He drove in a number of regional go-kart competitions (in the Basque Country, Cantabria and Catalonia) and eventually in the Spanish National Championship. In 2010 he arrived on the tougher circuits and came second in the Spanish Prototypes Tournament, winning the Open Formula Sub-18 championship with a Formula BMW. In 2011 he was Champion of the Spanish Prototypes Tournament. Last year saw his introduction to the international circuits, where he finished third in the FIA Radical Masters Euroseries, only mechanical failures preventing him from taking the title. Today he combines his motor-racing career with studies in mechanical engineering at the University of Mondragón.

AIC-Automotive Intelligence Center is an open innovation center integrating knowledge, technology and development under one umbrella in a bid to improve competitiveness in the automotive industry. AIC is a foundation promoted and backed by Biscay Provincial Council, Amorebieta-Etxano and Ermua city halls, a group of leading edge firms from the automotive industry and Basque automotive cluster ACICAE.