The Briton will join Norman Nato and Will Stevens in Jota's #12 Porsche 963 as the Hertz-backed operation expands to two Hypercar entries. Jenson Button, the 2009 Formula 1 world champion, will join the #38 crew alongside Phil Hanson and Oliver Rasmussen.
Speaking on stage at the Autosport International Show on Saturday, Ilott admitted he had been expecting to remain with Juncos Hollinger for a third full season with the squad he joined for the final three rounds of the 2021 campaign, but welcomed the chance to revisit a sportscar career that began promisingly in Ferrari GT machinery the same year.
Juncos Hollinger announced in October that Ilott would split from the team and revealed its signing of Romain Grosjean a few days later, but Ilott revealed that a deal had been done quickly after the final round of the 2023 WEC in Bahrain.
"It’s honestly quite a great surprise," said Ilott, who was joined on stage by Jota team boss Sam Hignett.
"I was expecting to stay in IndyCar, that was the original plan, and circumstances changed as they sometimes do in life.
"We’d reached out to Sam to see what was going on, what the situation was and straight away, I think you were quite keen.
"You had to go to Bahrain to do the final race and have a couple of discussions about what their plan was in general.
"And straight after Bahrain I got word back that we should have a discussion and I think from there it was pretty plain sailing and we moved forward quickly.
"I’m really thankful for it and to be fair it’s a beautiful car in a beautiful championship and I think we have a lot of potential to do a great job."
Source: Autosport