By alley - Dec 30, 2016, 12:20 PM ET

LIGHTS: Urrutia returns with Belardi

Belardi Auto Racing announced Friday that 2016 Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires runner-up Santiago Urrutia will return to the top rung of the Mazda Road to Indy with its squad for 2017. The 20-year-old from Uruguay, who won the Pro Mazda title in 2015, won four races in his rookie Indy Lights season with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, at Barber Motorsports Park, Road America and Mid-Ohio, falling just short of the title

in controversial circumstances at the Monterey finale

"We have a really strong crew and I believe that we are going to have one of the greatest teams in the paddock," said Urrutia. "I am very happy to sign with Belardi, as I was fighting with the team's drivers [Felix Rosenqvist and Zach Veach] all year in 2016.

"I have only one goal, and that is to win the championship, and I am going to try to win every race for the team. If I can't win, I'll be aiming for seconds and thirds, whatever I need to win the title. What happened at Laguna Seca in the finale is now in the past, and I am looking at the future. I have to thank all of my fans, my engineer, my sponsors in Uruguay and I want to thank Brian Belardi for believing in me."

Urrutia will join new Belardi recruit Shelby Blackstock in the team's Dallara IL-15s.

"We're extremely excited to being adding Santi to our stable of drivers for the 2016 season," said team owner Brian Belardi. "We're coming off a really strong season and our staff is highly motivated to make 2017 even better. Signing a driver of Santi's caliber will once again put us into the fight for a championship. The entire team is fired up with the announcements of Santiago and Shelby and we're hoping to confirm a third driver early in the new year."

The team plans to commence its winter testing program in January. The opening act of the 10-event/16-round Mazda Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires schedule will be the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 10-12.