IndyCar rookie Callum Ilott explains what surprises him most about the handling of the US Formula cars and what goes through his mind when he looks at the calendar
“The car is quite demanding to drive. It slides and drifts, almost like a kart with 700 horsepower.” Those are the words of IndyCar rookie Callum Ilott, speaking to ‘Sky Sports F1’, when asked about his as yet limited experience behind the wheel of an IndyCar racer.
Like so many racing drivers, Ilott started his career in karts. He did not only compete in his home country Great Britain. In 2011, he raced in the German Kart Championship (DKM) and finished third in the junior classification. Three years later, he became European Kart Champion, paving his way into Formula racing.
In the progression system to Formula 1, Ilott finished third overall in the 2018 GP3 series and was runner-up in Formula 2 two years later. As a member of Ferrari’s junior programme, the Briton was an official test driver for the Ferrari and Alfa Romeo Formula 1 teams in 2021 and was also Alfa Romeo’s official reserve driver However, he has yet to feature on race weekends apart from three Friday practices.
So Ilott decided to switch to the IndyCar Series in the autumn of 2021. He contested the last three races of the season (Portland, Laguna Seca, Long Beach) for the Juncos racing team, which returned to the US Formula Series after a two-year break, and signed a contract for the entire 2022 season, which begins for Ilott just like all the other IndyCar drivers next weekend on the street circuit in St. Petersburg (Florida).
Not only for Ilott, but also for Juncos Racing, 2022 will be the first full IndyCar season. To that end, Ricardo Juncos’ team has entered into a technical partnership with Carlin. Trevor Carlin’s racing team will not compete as its own team in the IndyCar Series in 2022.
When it came to his first three races at the end of 2021, Ilott was only mildly surprised by the IndyCar bolide, which will again be based on the Dallara DW12 originally introduced in 2012. “To be honest, it drives very much like a Formula 2 car,” he says. “It just has a bit more power and the rear end is more massive. What surprised me was realising how much you can slide the car.”
And what is Ilott particularly looking forward to? If nothing else, there are the tracks on the IndyCar calendar. “I would put it this way. The street circuits in Europe are comparable to the normal race tracks in the USA,” says the IndyCar rookie from Great Britain, referring to the subject of bumps. The US street circuits, such as St Petersburg, have considerably more bumps and other irregularities on the track.
“Based on what I’ve heard, Detroit must be the worst,” Ilott refers to the Belle Isle street circuit, which was raced for the last time this year. In general, the Juncos driver describes his expectations of the anything but top-flat IndyCar tracks with the words: “It will definitely be interesting for the back and for the teeth. “
One thing Ilott hasn’t experienced yet are the ovals. There are four of them on the 2022 IndyCar calendar: Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Iowa Speedway in Newton and Gateway Motorsports Park in St Louis.
“I guess I’m either going to love it [oval racing] or hate it. And I think the only time you hate it is when you stuff the car into the wall. So I would say still love it,” said the rookie, who plans to “just let it come to me, too.”
