Callum Ilott is committed to IndyCar next year

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Around this time last year, Callum Ilott battled Mick Schumacher both for a Formula 2 championship and for the honor of showing their mutual employer, the Ferrari Driver Academy, that he is ready for a Formula 1 place. Schumacher won that fight, he took the F1 seat in Haas and Ilott had to wait when the other two new places on the grid went to Red Bull junior Yuki Tsunoda and the well-funded chaos enthusiast Nikita Mazepin. Ilott suspended the 2021 season, knowing that an F2 championship over a weaker field would be of no use to him, and waited for the Formula 1 starting field to open in 2022. With that grid effectively completed, Ilott has decided to focus on something else. Like former Haas F1 ace Romain Grosjean and former Marussia driver Alexander Rossi, he has chosen to bring his talents to IndyCar.

Ilott will join Juncos Hollinger Racing next season, the team he made two appearances for in 2021. He will drive the Chevrolet-powered No. 77 as the team’s first full-time entrant, a huge undertaking that will see him as the only driver to compete on a one-car team in the entire series.

Junco’s Hollinger Racing has been driving part-time in IndyCar since 2017 but hadn’t driven since 2019 until Ilott’s Portland debut earlier this month. The highest ever finish is Sebastian Saavedra’s 15th place at the 2017 Indianapolis 500. However, the program also has two Indy Lights driver championships, Spencer Pigot’s 2015 title and Kyle Kaiser’s streak win in 2017. The team also won the Indy Pro Mazda. last season’s championship.

Signing a rider as promising as Ilott is a significant step in the ambitions of the entire program. However, with no experience in the car or a teammate to take notes with, Ilott and JHR could struggle to get up to a competitive pace in the first half of the season. Both the driver and team will have serious expectations of serious growth when they debut together as full-time competitors in St. Petersburg next February.

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