2024 has been Callum Ilott’s first full-time season away from single-seaters in nearly a decade of racing since he graduated from karting.
The Brit has had a solid year learning new machinery in the form of a World Endurance Championship Hypercar with Team Jota and even earned a win in the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
His first foray into IndyCar racing yielded two top-five finishes and a lot of consistent performances which landed him just outside the top 10.
It appears that they were good enough to convince PREMA to take a punt on him for 2025 as they embark on a new journey in IndyCar.
Callum Ilott ‘very excited’ for a second IndyCar chance
It doesn’t feel like long ago that Ilott challenged Mick Schumacher for the Formula 2 title, which went right down to the wire in 2020.
Now he’s back to race for the team that he competed for that title against, and has an opportunity to lead a huge new IndyCar project.
It’s something he’s incredibly excited about, as he discussed in a column for dailysportscar.com when talking about his future.
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“Having raced in IndyCar for three years until last year, I’m very excited to be going back to single-seaters,” he said.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this year with Hertz Team JOTA but I need to take this incredible opportunity to experience PREMA’s first steps in the series.
“But I’ll always be eternally grateful to Sam (Hignett) and David (Clark) at JOTA for this year. So I’ve a double incentive to sign off with success in the 8 Hours of Bahrain in November, the final round of this year’s WEC.”
How can PREMA expect to perform in their first IndyCar season?
The new kids of the block face a steep task to get up to speed in IndyCar, with the evidence of some of the recent entries showing how tough it can be.
McLaren and Juncos Hollinger Racing both took a while to get up to speed and are now in contention for top 10 finishes at most weekends.
PREMA have themselves a talented and fairly experienced IndyCar head in Ilott, and his age means that he provides them a stable platform to build on.
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It’s hard to see targets in what is already an unpredictable series, but it would be hard to imagine that the Italian team would be upset if they were to secure a few top 10 finishes.
The last looming question remains who they will partner Ilott with, as there are plenty of options left on the free agent market ahead of 2025.