ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The best way to determine the qualify and skill of an IndyCar driver isn’t necessarily to measure with statistics.
A good indicator is if a driver was able to get the most out of the car that he was given by that particular team.
Callum Ilott proved that last year at Juncos Hollinger Racing.
The 24-year-old from Cambridge, England, finished 20th in the NTT IndyCar Series final standings, but he qualified 14th or better six times, led seven laps and proved to be very racy behind the wheel of the team’s No. 77 Chevrolet.
Team owners Ricardo Juncos and Brad Hollinger are trying to build a competitive operation, but they have a long way to go to reach the same level of competitiveness as Team Penske or Chip Ganassi Racing. Ilott believes the team is on the verge of making a big step up the grid in 2023.
“I’m very quick,” said Ilott, who is supremely confident in his ability as a race car driver. “If you put me in the quickest car, I don’t think there are many people quicker than me, honestly. Looking at Laguna, we had a good car, and I was able to put it there. I’ll be saying the whole year, once it’s there, I can always compete with it. So that’s up to them to do it. I rarely make mistakes in qualifying.
“If it’s slow, it’s partly maybe five percent of the time it could be me. It’s a bit — I feel a bit cocky to say it, but I can tell them when I’ve nailed it and when I’ve not. Normally I’m quite honest if I messed up.”
Ilott qualified second in the final race of the season at Laguna Seca. His best finish was eighth in the GMR Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and ninth at the Grand Prix of Portland in September.
In between, he had flashes of brilliance, mixed with the struggles of driving a car that may not be on the same level as the bigger teams.
Callum Ilott (center) stands with JHR team owners Ricardo Juncos (right) and Brad Hollinger. (Penske Entertainment/James Black photo)
“With the races and stuff, we’ve had incidences where I’ve made mistakes and made the wrong decisions under a bit of pressure,” Ilott said. “We’ve had instances, like Iowa was a good example, where we had great pace race but couldn’t keep up in the pit stops, so you lose four or five positions every pit stops, which is painful to do, but it’s just the way it goes.
“Quantifying that, I think eliminating the mistakes, being consistent, obviously if I’m doing a more solid, consistent job, we can really see the strong tracks for us, where we’re good, where we’re slow, the areas to improve.
“I have a big idea of where we needed to be better, especially like the short oval qualifying. For some reason we were just not quick, but then we get to the races, and with the tire saving that we have, I think we can’t extract the peak out of the tire, but we end up being able to go 5, 10 laps longer than some other people.
“We could be better on some of the street circuits, so that’s why I’m interested for the first couple races.”
Ilott believes his “race craft” is slightly weaker than his ability to get speed in qualifying. At Laguna Seca, he proved that if he is in a car that is competitive, he can qualify it on the front row.
“The attitude, I’m just a bit more relaxed. I know my limits,” he said. “I know what I’m confident in, and I know what should and shouldn’t happen, so I think I can kind of tame myself in the ways that I maybe didn’t last year. And then on another way, know where I could improve when there is the time.
“It looks really good, really professional so far, and I’m pretty impressed,” Ilott said of the team as he prepares for Sunday’s season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. “Laguna was a fairly impressive for what we could do (season-high second place start). But I think more the consistency stuff, which we’re we were getting to Portland, I think the P10s, P 9s. That was more of a solidity for us to kind of work on the performance side.
“But going into St. Pete, also Long Beach and the ovals for me, that would be really where the performance gain is. Throughout the season to be able to really compare the performance gain that we had across the season to last year compared to now this year, that will be important to see.
“St. Pete will be a tough one but a good one to see where we’re really at.”
Ilott started and finished 19th in last year’s season-opener on the streets of St. Pete when he was driving the only car at Juncos Hollinger Racing. This year, he has a teammate in Agustin Canapino of Argentina.
“Agustin is in a very tough position,” Ilott said. “It’s not easy being a rookie, and it’s definitely not easy being a rookie without single seater experience, so I’m very interested to see how he gets on. I’m going to do my best to help him as much as possible, especially over the next few days here.
“It’s more data for us. The closer he is to me and the better he does, the better the team does, so it’s quite important to be able to get that comparison, and I’m sure he’ll do a good job. It’s data. It’s another car. It’s another item, another option to test items on, so yeah, incredibly important.”
Most drivers that come from a European racing background such as Ilott are obviously focused on a career in Formula One. Ilott was a reserve driver for Alfa Romeo in Formula One in 2021 and defeated Mike Schumacher for the 2020 Formula 2 Championship and a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy.
But he took a hard look at IndyCar and liked what he saw.
Callum Illot. (Action Sports Photo)
He drove the final three IndyCar races of the 2021 season and ran a full-time IndyCar schedule in 2022.
“I saw a lot of potential in IndyCar when I came over,” llott said. “I think there are some things it does really well. The racing is incredible. I think there’s some things they could definitely improve, but I think most people know that and are in tune to it. That’s a part of anything as a driver. You want to improve, and you want to do better, and the potential it has as a series really has been highlighted across the years.
“What sets it apart from like a Formula 2 or whatever is you are constantly competing with the best, and if you look at the grid this year, it’s incredible. I thought last year was good, and this year is probably going to be even a touch better.
“From Europe, people recognize that, the career opportunities. It’s one of those things where I was looking at doing IndyCar versus WEC or the IMSA stuff. It’s very hard to jump from IMSA to IndyCar or WEC to IndyCar. It’s not impossible but it’s tough, whereas going from IndyCar to that kind of stuff in a couple years is not impossible.
“I took that mindset and that jump to make life easier — well, to try and win some stuff here and then see what the future holds.”
As Ilott begins his second full season in IndyCar, what would constitute a successful season in terms of results?
“It depends on the performance a bit because, as you can see, even with the established teams, it’s hard to be perfect all the time,” he said. “I think for us, if we can maintain the kind of end-of-year finishes like the Portland finishes, P9, P10, and have a consistent kind of hitting like that, that would be great, and then when we have those opportunities to get the good results, just take them.
“Eliminate the mistakes, stay consistent and grab the opportunities when they come.”
Keyword: Ilott Looks To Strengthen Race Craft, Improve On Street Circuits