Ferrari youngster and runner-up in F2 2020, Ilott, made his Grand Prix weekend debut in Portimao on Friday, replacing Antonio Giovinazzi at Alfa Romeo.
The appearance was part of Ilott’s new role as Alfa Romeo’s second reserve driver, who was on standby for the team when first substitute Robert Kubica was unavailable.
Ilott finished 17th in his first FP1 game and drove four tenths of a second less than Kimi Raikkonen in the sister Alfa Romeo C41.
Alfa Romeo boss Vasseur announced after the race that Ilott’s next training trip for the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard was planned in June.
“We have a good relationship with Callum,” said Vasseur.
“He’s confident with the team, the relationship is good. He was pretty relaxed in the car. I really appreciate the session.
“It was the first, he will probably also drive the car in FP1 [again], the next one will be France, it will probably be a lot easier for him.
“You know we want to do a few FP1s during the season. I didn’t pay too much attention to the first one. It was like a warm up.
“The next few FP1s will be on tracks that he also knows a lot more about. We’re not going to burn the first two or three laps of the session to test the track and it gets a lot easier.
“But to be honest, it went very well this morning.”
When asked how many he meant by “couple”, Vasseur joked that he meant “between two and eight” and said that Ilott’s next gig was in France and “then we’ll see”.
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Alfa Romeo has generally served as a testing ground for young Ferrari drivers in the past. The team handed over training trips to Charles Leclerc and Antonio Giovinazzi in 2017 in 2018, preparing both of them before moving up to full-time racing seats the following year.
However, Vasseur felt that Ilott was facing a more difficult task than Leclerc or Giovinazzi with his practice efforts, since the sessions had been shortened by 30 minutes.
“It’s even more difficult than in the past,” said Vasseur.
“If you remember the past, in 2017 we did the same exercise with Charles. Even with Antonio in the year 18, it was always a big challenge for her. Now this season it’s even harder because you only have an hour.
“That means the first stint is a little shorter and you have two or three laps in the first stint, very often just a lap or two in the second stint to show that you are on the pace.
“Before the meeting everyone thought, OK, you have no mistakes, no pressure, you can’t take it lightly, but do your job.
“But in the end everyone concentrates on the lap time, they know the situation very well.
“Of course you look stupid if you break the car, but you can look stupid if you’re too slow. The exercise is very, very difficult. “
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