He could have what so many want: a full-fat factory drive in the top tier of endurance sports car racing. Instead, Callum Ilott has thrown the dice on a far riskier choice. The 26-year-old from Cambridge has steered away from a prime Hypercar drive with Jota’s works Cadillac team in the World Endurance Championship to head back to IndyCar with a European operation, Prema Racing, which is diving into one of the most competitive and difficult racing series for the first time.

It begs the obvious question for Ilott: why?

“I had unfinished business with IndyCar,” replies Ilott, who has accumulated 40-odd starts in the US single-seater series since 2021 and should make his fourth appearance at the Indianapolis 500 this May. “I wanted to progress and show more of what I could do, and with Prema coming in it’s one of the only teams I’ve stayed in touch with from my junior career. It felt natural to begin their journey with them.”

Still, it’s a brave move. Ilott joined Jota last year in the wake of the small Juncos Hollinger Racing team dropping him after two and bit largely promising seasons in IndyCar. That was a nasty surprise. But then Jota offered potential security and a fresh, exciting opportunity with its customer Porsche 963s. Ilott immediately made an impact, finishing second on his Hypercar debut in Qatar, and then with Will Stevens sensationally scored the first win for a privateer in the WEC’s new era at Spa.

He admits there were some “rookie endurance mistakes” – beaching the Hertz-backed 963 at Imola’s Rivazza for example and crashing at Le Mans late in Wednesday night practice forcing a hurried if heroic rebuild before the race. But overall Ilott was fast, made a positive impression on Jota and loved his season at the team.

Still, the IndyCar siren call drew him back, especially as Prema is a family team with which he has a strong affinity, ever since he drove for the junior single-seater powerhouse in Formula 3 back in 2017.

“I wanted to progress in IndyCar and show more of what I can do”

It hasn’t been an easy start for the team in IndyCar. One of its key recruits, vastly experienced head of engineering Michael Cannon, left before the season even begun, and the team was fined $25,000 (£18,800) for the use of an “unapproved product” on the fire suppression system on one car following a fire in practice at the second round at The Thermal Club. Results from the first two races left little to be desired.

“I think some people may have had different expectations, but we knew the challenges coming into it,” says Ilott, speaking to Motor Sport ahead of the Long Beach Grand Prix. “Operationally we’re running quite well. But in terms of the performance parts you can play around with we are a lot further behind than the others who have 12 years’ experience on this current IndyCar.”

Ilott says the plan has always been for Prema “to hit the ground running” by the time the Big One, the Indy 500 comes around. “Indy is technically the hardest environment I’ve worked in because yes, there are only four corners, but they are four corners at the complete limit of what a car is capable of,” he says. “The whole process [through the two weeks of practice and qualifying], you have to balance race and qualifying running, stay on top of the temperature and wind changes. You can only build up to the limit, you can’t go over it. The moment you do it’s game over, you start way down and your whole two weeks are ruined.

“Each day is different. The first Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday you feel you have loads of time to progress, then suddenly you’re into Fast Friday, the boost is turned up and the car behaves completely differently, you are entering 10mph more into each corner and 10mph at 240mph is an impressive difference. The car really starts to dance on the limit. Then boom, you’re into qualifying day and you really have to trust your car. You do one warm-up lap, then keep your foot flat to the floor through Turn 1, not knowing what kind of balance you are going to have.

“Then it’s race running time Monday to Friday in the second week. You run out of time quickly and you are always fine-tuning. Some get lost trying to find the right things.”

How about race day, with all the Memorial weekend hoopla that comes with the 500? “It’s probably the calmest day at the track,” says Ilott. “You wake up with all the fanfare, the marching bands, but it’s pretty slow-paced until about 10.30am. Then it’s go-time, there’s a lot of people and it all goes by quickly. The atmosphere and the process, the anthems and songs… having done it three times now it flows quite nicely. You understand the way it works, but it’s tiring for a rookie.

“Then the race itself, you’ve got to be aggressive but calm and once the lights go out the goal is to make it through Turn 1. You’re in fuel save mode for at least half of the race, trying to pick off people where you can. That final stint is tough. At that point everyone is at 105%. The restarts are crazy. You get some ballsy moves! The first time I did it you get a sense of the danger. I crashed in that race, which wasn’t a nice experience, but you get to feel the rhythm of this race and know how people are going to behave.”

Ilott seems fully at peace with his decision to take IndyCar over the WEC and Le Mans. Committed to Prema for this season and the next, he cites Scott Dixon and Will Power – both into their third decades as IndyCar stars – as the inspiration for what he wants. But he knows the mighty challenge he and Prema face together. One thing is certain: you can’t doubt the courage of his conviction.