Series portrait - 2010 Champion Mortara

Edoardo Mortara: portrait of the Euro Series champion

18.09.2010 - Edoardo Mortara (Signature) had plenty of reasons to be happy at Oschersleben: the Italian has won the drivers' title in the 2010 Formula 3 Euro Series. With three races remaining, he has now a margin of 25 points over second-placed Marco Wittmann (Signature) and can't be beaten anymore.

Before him, Formula 1 stars like Lewis Hamilton and Nico Hulkenberg and DTM drivers like Paul Di Resta and Jamie Green had won the prestigious Euro Series champion's title. Mortara also secured two premieres: both his team Signature and his engine partner Volkswagen celebrated their maiden drivers' title in the Euro Series.

In his young career, Mortara has already had ups and downs. In 2006, he started in single-seater racing and graduated into the Formula 3 Euro Series one year later already. He ended up as the best-placed rookie and eighth overall in his debut season. In the next year, his Signature team changed to Volkswagen engines and Mortara concluded the season as runner-up. After that, he moved up into the GP2 series. However, the 23 year old Italian with the remarkable blue eyes didn't have a good time there - his career, that had been running smoothly up to that time, stalled. He was all the more happy to get an offer from Volkswagen and Signature to compete in the Macau Grand Prix at the end of 2009. In the south of China, he won arguably the world's most important Formula 3 race. The fan of Italian football team AC Milan started as one of the favourites into this year's season, in which he clearly dominated with four fastest qualifying times and six race victories.

In three years, there was just one team in the Euro Series for Mortara: Signature. The team led by principal Philippe Sinault is like a family for the race driver. They were also there for him, even in difficult personal circumstances, and supported him where they could. Mortara is not a typical Latin personality. He was born and raised in Geneva. His mother is French, his father comes from Italy. Edoardo successfully finished grammar school in spite of his karting activities and studied economics at the Geneva University for two years from 2006. After a two-year break, during which he concentrated on his career in motorsport, he missed the mental challenge and he continued his studies. On top of that, he recently obtained his pilot's licence, he is doing a lot of fitness training and is competing in free fighting. Additionally, he has promised his girlfriend something important: when he wins the Formula 3 Euro Series' title, an engagement is the next thing.

-source: eurof3 series