This season is a make or break season for Prema’s Callum Ilott, who admitted not finding backing this year could be the end of his Formula One dreams.
Now in his third year in European Formula Three, Ilott is one of the favourites to take the crown, but the teenager currently isn’t backed by an F1 team. He was a Red Bull Junior in 2015, when he made not only his debut in the championship, but his debut in car racing, but was dropped after a difficult first season.
“I think I’m the only one in F3 [not affiliated to a team],” Ilott told motorsport.com. “Maxi [Gunther] is with Mercedes in DTM, Mick [Schumacher] is a Mercedes ambassador, Guan Yu Zhou is with Ferrari. Lando [Norris] is with McLaren. [Joel] Eriksson is with BMW. I’m the one of the only ones who’s not been picked! I look at it now, and it’s very hard to find an opening.”
Ilott also remarked that, even if there was an opening on a team’s young driver programme, that wouldn’t guarantee him a place in F1, with few openings for seats. GP2 champion, Pierre Gasly, for example, didn’t get the promotion to F1, and currently races in the Super Formula in Japan.
The only thing Ilott can do at the moment is prove he is the right investment in F3. Running with the best team on the grid this season puts him in the perfect position to prove himself.
“All I can do is wait and see,” he said. “If an F1 team told me they wanted me in F1 next year, obviously I’d take it, or if they say they want me to do F2 for a season.
“The alternative is if I don’t get picked up, I have to find someone to sponsor me in F2, and hope that it’s a good year, and I get picked up then. If not, then my chances of F1 could be finished.
“Then I’d have to try something in America, or maybe even Formula E. But I’ve still got one or two more years before I have to consider that.
“If I win this year, I would hope to get picked up, but I would also hope it’s one where there’s a clear opportunity to break into F1.”
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