In the third part of Pit Debrief’s exclusive interview of Callum Ilott, the Juncos Hollinger Racing driver discussed the reasoning behind the increasing phenomenon of European drivers joining Indycar, his former fellow Ferrari Driver Academy member and friend Marcus Armstrong, and how does his Formula 1 experience compares to the speed of American racing.
Marcus Armstrong is the latest driver to join IndyCar from Formula 2 in recent years, after Christian Lundgaard’s switch in 2022 and Ilott himself in 2021. The Kiwi driver is competing for Chip Ganassi Racing on street and road courses in car no. 11.
Asked if he is pleased to race against him again, Ilott replied that he is rather enjoying Armstrong’s personal and professional success in the series:
“I don’t care about racing with him, you know? It’s cool, but as a friend or whatever, like, it’s just nice to see him enjoy something, enjoying the racing, and of course if as a kind of friend you can share that with someone, like if I enjoy the racing and he enjoys the racing and we race together it’s good fun.”
“I lived with him in Maranello, he lives four or five minutes away from me here, it’s good fun. I know a lot about him and he knows a lot about me. “
In spite of not competing on ovals, Armstrong is leading the rookie standings with 108 points. He was in the running for a podium finish last time out in Road America until a bizarre strategy call from CGR ruined his race.
“Adding on to that, I think he is doing a great job, also in the rookie championship, I think he is getting along well with the team and understanding a bit more the environment. I always find his view on ovals quite funny, but at the same time he still needs to get the experience to adapt to them, and enjoy and do that.
“He is a good guy, it’s good fun to be around him, to see him enjoying what’s going on here,” he concluded.
Photo credits: Penske Entertainment | Joe Skibinski
We also discussed the prospects for young drivers at the end of their feeder series runs, with Ilott himself mentioning IndyCar as the best option due to the competitiveness of the series:
“Because outside of Formula 1 there were not massive amounts of options, and, if you think about it, not everyone wants to go into the GTs or LMP side, because of sharing a car, and, you know, being young and stuff you still want to stand out and be in control of the complete environment.
“The other thing is that it’s not easy to enter those. Like, I know for the Hypercar seats a lot of those teams, well, almost all of them, I can guarantee won’t take a driver fresh from a junior series until they have done a bit of GT racing, a bit of endurance racing, because it’s just a completely different world.
“It’s not easy to just jump into the ideal seat, and if you don’t want to do GTs to get into Hypercar by sacrificing maybe a year not knowing what’s going on, that’s tough, and some people don’t want to do that.”
The British driver has had a taste of endurance racing, competing in GT in 2021 and scoring a podium in the same class at the 24H of Le Mans in 2021.
“On the other side there is Formula E which is in some people’s taste quite good and then other people say they don’t like it as much. I think it’s a good career opportunity, very different style of racing actually, and every time they change the car the style changes a lot, so you never know which way it’s going to be.
“So, that kind of leaves IndyCar, which is, I would say, the most competitive racing series for a driver because really you never know, but on any day you could win, right? It’s so competitive, and you just have to find yourself in the right place at the right time, and you could win this race, or any race.”
The American championship has many perks for a young driver, as Ilott went on to mention the different kinds of racing to be experienced throughout a single season and the levelness of the field, which can’t be found in other racing series:
“It’s very versatile, it varies from very bumpy street circuits to great, historical road courses to the craziest ovals you could get, and all four the ovals are massively different.
“You have got a wide variety of teams, you’ve got McLaren with that kind of F1 partnership, you’ve got Penske and Ganassi who have had a massive history within the series, Andretti who have had a long history in the series, and then the younger teams that on any given day they can be very competitive.
“I don’t want to say it in a bad way, but take Williams, Haas, Alfa Romeo… on a good weekend you get points, but you would be crazy to bet on them to be able to win the race, right? It’s not impossible, but you would be good crazy to bet on them.
“Whereas any of the younger teams here you never know, it could happen and the chances are greater. All the drivers are super competitive, super close together, I mean, some of our qualifyings are just ridiculous, the time difference between everyone.
“It’s a professional racing series with a great career that you can have, and that’s really enticing to young drivers, it gives you an opportunity. And at any time I feel that if IndyCar wasn’t for me anymore, I can jump and still do the IMSA or endurance stuff, WEC, maybe even Formula E, but I don’t feel that I would be able to go from endurance racing back to Indycar,” Ilott added highlighting the versatitly drivers acquire from such a competitive championship.
“It still can lead to other opportunities, which is one of the reasons why I went to do it, because I knew that if it didn’t work I could go back into those other areas.”
The former Reserve Driver for Ferrari and Alfa Romeo has had the opportunity to test Formula 1 machinery in practice sessions and on test days. Asked which experience has given him more adrenaline, the higher speeds touched in oval races in IndyCar or running in Formula 1 machinery, Ilott admitted that they are both amazing experiences, thrilling for different reasons:
“I think the first laps of going in qualifying is unreal in IndyCar, there is not much else like it. I did some of the craziest laps of my life this year in qualifying for the 500, but at the same time…
“The adrenaline doesn’t compare, but I loved everything about F1, for me even the start-up procedure for the car, the way the tyre blankets come off, all of that…That’s very special, and a lot of memories, the sounds, the smell and all of that, it was such a cool experience.
“But at the same time, the 500, the qualifying, the atmosphere, the speeds… Nothing also compares to that. So, very different types of things, also the same way in the Formula 1 car, I don’t think you can ever get in a car that you can push to the same cornering speeds in a sort of ways.
“It’s incredible how much downforce you have, and confidence in going through the corners. They are both amazingly special [but] separate things,” he concluded.
