Callum Ilott enjoyed his first free practice on Friday morning in Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, with the British on the line for Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN instead of Antonio Giovinazzi.
Ilott, the runner-up from Mick Schumacher in recent years ‘ FIA Formula 2 The championship was announced earlier this week as Alfa Romeo’s second reserve driver for the 2021 Formula 1 season. For the first time in Portugal he had the opportunity to take to the track in the C41 Ferrari.
On a track that was new to him, he drove twenty-one laps and finished in a respectable seventeenth place, just two places, 0.425 seconds behind his experienced team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.
After the session, he admitted that he was surprised by the jump in speed when he switched from hard to soft tires, but by the end of his time in the car he felt more comfortable.
“I really enjoyed being in the car today,” said Ilott. “The team made it as easy as possible for me to get started right away and it was an excellent opportunity to gain experience, make the most of this hour and help the team gather data for the weekend.
“This is not an easy route, but I was able to build confidence with every run. The first run on hard tires was good and I got to know the car. When I made the jump to the softs I was a bit caught at first as there was a big increase in grip, but I was able to get a better feel for where to take advantage of the grip towards the end of the session.
“Working with the team in the past has really helped: all in all, it was a successful day where we ran consistently and learned a lot.”
France the next chance for Ilott to race with Alfa Romeo – Vasseur
Frédéric Vasseur, the team principal at Alfa Romeo and the CEO of Sauber Motorsport AG, has indicated that Ilott will be back at the C41 to practice for them French Grand Prix.
Ilott has tested twice with Alfa Romeo in the past two seasons, but Friday’s practice session marked the first time he had participated in an official Formula 1 practice session after having his planned outing with the Haas F1 team In the Grand Prix of the Eifel canceled last year due to weather.
“We have a good relationship with Callum,” Vasseur of Motorsport.com is quoted as saying. “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. They know we want to do a couple of 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. “
According to Vasseur, Ilott had a tough job that weekend in practice bringing himself up to speed. The sessions have been reduced to just one hour for 2021. For the British, this meant the session was more condensed than for others Charles Leclerc and Antonio GiovinazziBoth tested for the team on Alfa Romeo before the race.
“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. “
Callum Ilott made his free practice debut in Portugal on Friday – Photo credit: Antonin Vincent / DPPI
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