The 25-year-old Briton has been called in to drive Arrow McLaren’s No. 6 Chevrolet for the IndyCar Series season opener while David Malukas continues to recover from an injured left wrist that required surgery.
The journey to this point has been an interesting one for Ilott. He made 36 IndyCar starts with Juncos Hollinger Racing (JHR) over the last three seasons, including five top-10 finishes that was highlighted with a career- and team-best fifth (twice – St. Petersburg, Laguna Seca) in 2023. That venture came after a brief spell with Formula 1 programs as a test driver for Ferrari and a reserve driver for Alfa Romeo (now Sauber) in 2021.
Despite the promise shown on track over the past few years, Ilott was left without a full-time ride in IndyCar for 2024 and forced to seek other opportunities. Ultimately, he ended up in the FIA World Endurance Championship driving for Jota Sport in the Hypercar category, where he is fresh of a podium result in the season-opening round at Qatar last Saturday in its Porsche 963.
“I felt that maybe it was slightly premature, what happened end of last year,” Ilott said, regarding his time with JHR.
“It's life, and you have to find the best situation for yourself and work with that, and to be fair, I'm very fortunate to be in a super competitive seat with Hertz Team Jota and hit the ground running on that, and we're second in the championship, World Endurance Championship, straight away, which is great, and then to get the ball rolling in the first weekend of IndyCar with Arrow McLaren, I can't complain.”
Uniquely, though, the strategic alliance formed between Arrow McLaren and JHR is a large part of what made this a relatively smooth process for all involved.
“Yeah, so when there is, shall we say, some shifts in the market, obviously I had some contact with Zak (Brown, McLaren CEO) to see what was going on,” Ilott said.
“There was the understood kind of development of a partnership between Juncos, and at that point it seemed quite sensible to keep things as it was. So, I had that communication established, which is why I think it was quite easy to get the ball rolling to do St. Pete a couple of weeks ago.”
The various challenges of traveling across the Atlantic Ocean due to WEC obligations have made time with Arrow McLaren minimal for Ilott. However, he was able to get some courtesy of a pre-season test at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Although the resources, personnel and team size are significantly deeper at Arrow McLaren compared to JHR, he is still trying learning what the size of the gap is between the two organizations.
“To be honest, it's a bit of a discovery process because obviously I did the hybrid test, but I've only been in the shop for one or two days now,” Ilott said.
“The size of the team obviously is larger and more years of experience within the series, but I can't really comment on that until during the race weekend and experiencing it on that side of a full scale. Obviously, it's great. The preparation is good even though I've had to be in Qatar and full focus on that. But now it's obviously full focus on St. Pete.
“That's increasing and ramping up, and I'm excited to see what the full scale of the operation is.”
🫡 yes sir
— Callum Ilott (@callum_ilott) March 5, 2024
Considering also that this weekend’s team-mate, Pato O’Ward, nearly won this same race last year, what are Ilott’s expectations entering the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street circuit?
“It's a brand-new year for everyone, so of course you don't know exactly where to start off,” Ilott said.
“But in the history of Arrow McLaren, they've always been very, very strong, and St. Pete last year was also very strong.
“Yeah, think there's all the opportunity to do a good job, but my focus at the end of the day is filling in and doing a solid job and leaving the weekend with no complaints. If I can be fast and up there, great. If I can finish the race and get some good points for them, that's also the goal.
“Let's see where it goes into FP1, qualifying, and then the race.”
While any future chances in IndyCar this year are beyond Ilott’s control, there is a thought to the number of races he can realistically handle without impeding his current commitments in WEC, which includes the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
“You know, I don't want to get in the way of anything,” Ilott said.
“There's a lot of preparation up until Le Mans, and I think we have some other tests maybe before COTA (Circuit of The Americas) later on in the year.
“Of course, it's convenient that the series only has seven or eight races, so it's not too strenuous on that side. It's just a lot of travel. I think the calculation I did at the beginning of the year was the possibility to make 11 or 12 IndyCar races if I had to. Of course, that's a lot of traveling for me to do.
“I'm just going to see what's convenient on that side. If I have to do 11, 12, that's what I'll have to do. If I can manage with three, four, five, that's what I'll do, as well. I'm just playing it by ear. I don't think I expected to go to St. Pete about a month ago, so now that's happening, and I can't complain.”
