The apprenticeship that will aid Ilott's IndyCar to WEC switch at Jota

Callum Ilott's time at Ferrari ran out; his stint in IndyCar was cut short. But Jota’s new recruit for its WEC Porsche Hypercar effort could be the real deal for the British squad

James Newbold Feb 10, 2024, 12:43 PM

Had things gone as Callum Ilott had anticipated over the long IndyCar off-season – a full eight grand prix weekends have been held since he navigated September’s Laguna Seca season finale crashfest to finish an equal-best fifth – then he’d be preparing for a third full-season in top-flight US open-wheel racing. But as the Cambridge native put it on the Autosport International show’s main stage last month, “circumstances changed as they sometimes do in life”.

The 25-year-old duly found himself facing the exit door at Juncos Hollinger Racing, the team he’d joined for the final three races of a 2021 season that overlapped with his final year on Ferrari’s books. Fortunately for Ilott, while the door to a Formula 1 race seat had remained firmly closed, he’d not spent 2021 entirely kicking his heels as Alfa Romeo’s underused reserve.

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Author James Newbold

James Newbold is Autosport's Plus Editor, responsible for coordinating website feature content.

In a sign of things to come, having completed his Politics and International Relations degree at the University of East Anglia in 2015, he left his graduation ceremony early to catch the last train to Brussels for the following day's Spa 24 Hours.

After a period as a freelancer, he joined the Autosport staff in 2018 and won the Motorsport UK young journalist of the year award.

He initially edited Autosport magazine's Performance and Engineering supplements before joining the website team in his current role in 2020.

A keen enthusiast of anything that can be categorised unusual, niche or random, he enjoys unearthing little-known stories across all branches of motorsport, but has spent most of his career covering sportscars as Autosport's British GT correspondent and is a regular part of the Le Mans 24 Hours reporting team.

An expert in catching 40 winks on media centre floors, he lives with his wife and son in Plymouth, England.