Racing Engineering has joined GP2 Series rivals iSport International and FMSI in confirming that it will be entering the new Formula BMW Europe Championship next season.

The Spanish operation - unique among its peers in not entering the inaugural GP2 Asia campaign next year - will rekindle its lower category ambitions in the new-for-2008 FBMW Europe series, which has been born out of the merger of the successful British and German national championships and will support seven F1 grands prix, making it a natural attraction for GP2 operations. The draft calendar also shows one race outside the Formula One calendar, with suggestions that it could support any non-championship GP2 round.

Racing Engineering will be the only Spanish team in the FBMW championship, joining teams from the UK, Germany, France and Italy, and will look to build on the success it achieved in the Spanish F3 series, which it won for six consecutive seasons.

“Racing Engineering is very happy to enter this championship," team principal Alfonso de Orleans-Borbon commented, "It was something we were looking forward to in order to allow young talent a first contact with the F1 and GP2 tracks before they, hopefully, reach those series. Racing Engineering would like to thank BMW for the opportunity and showing trust by choosing us to be part in this exciting and new format, which will definitely produce great drivers in the future.”