After finishing runner-up to Mick Schumacher in the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship, Callum Ilott made his IndyCar debut in 2021 with Juncos Hollinger Racing at Portland. At the time, he was a test driver with the Ferrari Driver Academy and was Alfa Romeo’s second reserve driver in Formula 1, sharing the role with Robert Kubica.
But the Briton's F1 prospects fell through when Alfa offered Zhou Guanyu a 2022 seat over him. Ilott turned attentions elsewhere and looked at IndyCar as his true racing future, having tested the waters in endurance racing by finishing third on his Le Mans 24 Hours debut in the GTE Am class.
“I'd always watched IndyCar over the last two, three years and been interested in giving it a go,” he tells Autosport. “In 2021 I had tried Le Mans, I'd been racing in the endurance stuff [with the Iron Lynx Ferrari GT team] and I could stay around the F1 environment in as a test reserve role and, you know, live off of hope that one day you go in.
“But, at the end of the day, I wanted to race, I wanted to have a good career.”
After setting aside his Hypercar options in WEC, Ilott’s manager informed him that Juncos Hollinger Racing was starting up its IndyCar programme in America and said he could enter the last three races of 2021. Ilott took a chance on the Argentinean-American team and has since signed a contract that commits him until the end of 2024.
One key factor for Ilott making the commitment to run full-time in IndyCar with Juncos was the fact that there were more opportunities career-wise in America to “make a name for yourself”, as opposed to endurance racing where you must share the limelight with other team-mates.
“Look, I love endurance racing,” he says. “I thought it was great. But the one thing as a young guy that you want to do is make a name for yourself, make a career and, of course, you can do that there.
Source: Autosport