The deal is, at the moment, for a single race, but Callum Ilott may be asked to attend more grands prix when Robert Kubica is unavailable, if he can fit it in with his IndyCar program with Juncos Hollinger Racing.
The Briton shared the function of reserve driver for Alfa Romeo with the Pole last year due to his union with the Ferrari Driver Academy and, in addition, he participated in the Free Practice 1 sessions in Portugal and Austria.
He is no longer linked to the Maranello team, but has maintained his ties to the Hinwil outfit independently of the Maranello connections.
“Callum is part of the team and he was with us last year,” Alfa Romeo principal Frédéric Vasseur told Motorsport.com. “He knows the whole perfectly. The car doesn’t, but he knows the team, and we are all close to him, he did a good job with us in the past.”
“He’s here race by race. He has his own commitments, and I don’t want to upset him, but the fact that he was in America made sense to him as well,” he continued. “We’ll see in the future, but if sometimes Robert [Kubica] isn’t available, it makes sense to go with Callum. We don’t need to have a contract, he’s part of the family.”
Ilott said he welcomed the chance to rejoin the team in Miami and actually keep one foot in F1: “I wanted to come here anyway. They called me two weeks ago so it worked out pretty well for me to be able to help out and be there.” here”.
“The last time I drove this car in the simulator was probably in the very early stages of development,” Ilott told Motorsport.com . “Many of the systems are similar to previous years, but the fundamentals are very different.”
“It’s good to be back and see some people I haven’t seen for many months. I’ve been in this environment for a while, in F3 or F2, and I know a lot of people here. So to come back and have some good times with people and being able to participate is great.
Asked if he still harbors hopes of one day getting a seat in F1, he said: “I quote Nyck de Vries on this, because he said: ‘I’m not actively looking for it.’ I think that’s the way I see it.”
“Now I have a good career in IndyCar, this is more ‘if something comes up.’
