Rising British star Oliver Turvey has secured a seat with Ocean Racing Technology for the forthcoming GP2 Asia series.

The 23-year-old from Cumbria had been uncertain about his 2011 plans as his backing from the Racing Steps Foundation ended after his first season of GP2, when he had taken an Asia series race win and sixth in the main championship with iSport.

But he has now signed with former Formula 1 driver Tiago Monteiro's Ocean team for this winter's Asia contest. This six-round championship starts with races at F1 venues Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi (10-12 February) and Sakhir in Bahrain (17-19 February) before culminating as part of the bill of the first F1 weekend of the season at Sakhir on 11-13 March.

Team owner Monteiro described the pairing of Oliver and Italian Formula 3 graduate Andrea Caldarelli as "the ideal driver package".

"We have worked a great deal to reach a certain level and our ambition was to assign our cars to the best two drivers of the up-and-coming generation," said Monteiro.

The highly-rated Turvey has conducted test and development work for the McLaren F1 team and is a former winner of the prestigious McLaren/AUTOSPORT BRDC Award - Britain's foremost accolade for young drivers.

He is confident he can challenge for race wins with Ocean.

"I feel totally ready and completely prepared for the challenge we have to face and I have big ambitions," said Oliver.

"I always race to win and I think we have everything we need to be competitive."