Ilott to race in IndyCar for Prema in 2025

He will now return to full-time IndyCar competition with the team he raced with in F3 back in 2017 as it begins its first ever season in the IndyCar championship. 

Ilott’s previous IndyCar experience was mixed in with a season racing for Jota in the World Endurance Championship. The man from Cambridge filled in three times for the injured, and then axed, David Malukas with McLaren, impressing many with a pair of 11^th place finishes despite little chance to test with the team. 

Before that, he spent two seasons with Juncos Hollinger, improving in his second season to achieve two top-five finishes and finish 16^th in the championship, five places and 86 points ahead of team-mate Agustín Canapino. 

For 2024 he switched his full-time efforts to WEC where his season in sportscar racing was a productive one. Ilott achieved the first overall win for an independent team in the Hypercar era when he and Will Stevens took the Jota-run Porsche 963 to victory at Spa in May before the pair, racing with Norman Nato, would clinch the World Championship for Teams (WEC’s independent teams’ championship) with a round to go.

With Prema, Ilott will link back up with the team that took him to fourth place in the European F3 championship in 2017. Prema has spent many years as one of the top teams in junior formulae, and begun making the move to top level racing with a series of LMP2 campaigns across European Le Mans Series, World Endurance Championship and IMSA in recent seasons.

Now it will step up to the top level of American open-wheel racing with a two-car team in IndyCar from 2025. The identity of the driver for the second Prema car is yet to be revealed. 

Speaking of the new team-owner Rene Rosin said: “We are absolutely delighted to welcome Callum back with us for this new chapter of our history.

“We had a great time working with him in Formula 3, and we always kept an eye on him after that. He proved to be a great fit for us in the past, and I think he will feel like picking up something he had left off.

“He proved his outstanding speed skills everywhere he competed. In addition, his prior INDYCAR experience will be an invaluable asset. Now that the opportunity to get back together has come, we are determined to make the most out of it.”

Ilott currently has one more round of the World Endurance Championship left in 2025, the 8 Hours of Bahrain on 31^st October. It is yet to be confirmed whether or not his full-time IndyCar return will end his association with Jota after one season.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.