Ferrari F1 junior Ilott secures 2022 full-time IndyCar drive

Ilott finished second in Formula 2 in 2020 but couldn’t find an F1 drive, acting as Alfa Romeo’s official test and reserve driver this year.

Even though Kimi Raikkonen was ruled out of two races due to coronavirus, Ilott was unable to make his F1 debut due to competing in the final rounds of the 2021 IndyCar campaign for Juncos.

The British driver’s chances of a drive with Alfa Romeo in F1 continued to shrink throughout the year as Guanyu Zhou has emerged as a leading contender to partner new signing Valtteri Bottas.

Speaking of the news, Ilott said: “Obviously, we have had a steep learning curve here the last few races to try to put everything together. We have had some real positives and know the things we need to work on.

“Knowing what Ricardo Juncos and Brad Hollinger have in place for next season and especially over the winter of what we can do in testing, I definitely feel we can put ourselves in a great position to start off the 2022 season strong. I look forward to continuing the work that we are doing and heading into the winter to start a new journey over here, and I would like to thank the Ferrari Driver Academy for allowing me to take this opportunity.”

Team owner Ricardo Juncos was impressed with how Ilott handled himself in his first races in IndyCar, especially as he’s only 22.

“We are very pleased to announce Callum to the team full time for the 2022 IndyCar season,” he added. “His maturity, speed on track, and feedback is surprisingly good for being 22 years old. We were very impressed with his feedback and the physical condition of Callum after Laguna.

“After a long tough race at Laguna, he got out of the car not even showing any signs of fatigue. Considering Laguna was a full green flag race, Callum proved to be in incredible shape.”

Ilott will compete in his third IndyCar race at the season finale at Long Beach this weekend.