Racing Engineering has confirmed Javier Villa as their driver for the 2006 GP2 season.The press conference held at the “Auditorio Principe Felipe” inOviedo was attended by Ana Rosa Migoya, the minister of Cultureand Sports for the principality of Asturies, Daniel Gutierrez Granda,the Regional Director of Sport and Jose Manuel Garcia Villa, thepresident of the Asturies federation as well as Javier Villa and RacingEngineering’s principal Alfonso de Orleáns-Borbón.
During this press conference Javier Villa was presented as RacingEngineering’s driver entering into a two year GP2 project. Thegovernment of Asturies took advantage of this presentationconfirming its continuation in supporting Javier Villa on his importantstep up to GP2, the stepping stone to Formula 1.
In front of an unexpectedly high number of journalists Javier Villaannounced: “I am really glad to be able to make the jump to GP2after turning 18 just recently. The goal for my first year in GP2 is togather knowledge and experience, of not only the car but also mostracetracks which will be new for me. I will compete against drivers,who already raced in GP2 or have years of experience in similarchampionships so I need to work hard and there is so much for me tolearn, but I think I am ready for this step.
"I would really like to take the advantage to thank Racing Engineering, Repsol, Telefonica,Mapfre and the government of Asturies for making this importantstep in my career possible. I really appreciate their confidence in meand will do my best to prove to them to have made the right choice.”
Alfonso de Orleáns-Borbón, Racing Engineering’s team principal,added: “Together with our sponsors Repsol and Telefonica we havetaken the decision to compete in the GP2 Series in 2006 with JavierVilla. We are aware that Javi’s first year will be tough and he needsto learn, but we are convinced that he was the right choice. He is avery big talent, a rough diamond that needs to be polished now. Hisgoal is to make it into the top 12 during this year and I am convincedhe won’t disappoint us.”
