Callum Ilott and Juncos: the unlikely underdog pairing taking on IndyCar

“I think the challenge is building an IndyCar team from scratch,” Juncos said at Long Beach. “From zero, it’s always a challenge, right? It’s a top of the planet class and we respect that, we know it’s difficult. For us ’22 will be our first full season, a lot to learn, I think we are really looking forward to ’23 when everything is set – that’s the year we’re going to go for big things. I think obviously we want to win, we want to win today and this weekend, but the reality is IndyCar is difficult and obviously we’re facing all the top teams. We know what we want, we just need time and that’s what we’re going to start doing.”

The current level of competition in IndyCar is such that being one or two tenths of a second off of the pace in qualifying can make the difference between starting eighth and 18th. To be successful in IndyCar means that a team must operate at a near-perfect level and that comes with a lot of experience, which JHR is lacking.

That didn’t deter Ilott from joining a small team, especially with his pedigree in European racing. The Brit is a Formula 2 race winner, coming second in the 2020 F2 standings to Mick Schumacher and finishing third in the GTE-Am class at the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans. The mountain for him and JHR to climb might make critics question the wisdom of joining a small team, but Ilott knows the path ahead will be difficult and has embraced that difficulty.

“As frustrating as it can be, we knew what we were coming into for these (2021 IndyCar) races, that’s why I’m not stressing at the moment,” Ilott said. “But what I know for sure is that we will have a lot of work to do over the winter, we have a lot of ability to do that work and then we’ll see where we start the beginning of next year, so I think honestly we can do a great job.

“It’s great if you come in and do a good job with an existing team that’s already proven, but if you take a team from starting point, rock bottom in that sense, not that it’s rock bottom but, you know, from the base up and you make it into a race-winning team, I’d much rather take the credit for that and that’s the program that I think we’re going to put in place and what we can do over the winter. There’s a long way to go but I think it’s highly possible.”

What may be Ilott’s biggest challenge for 2022 is oval racing. Ilott’s entire junior open wheel career has been contested on road and street courses, but the 2022 IndyCar schedule has five oval races in a 17-race schedule, which might make some oval novices uneasy.

“I’m a person who can’t knock it until I try it in that sense,” Ilott said. “I think some people come over here and they love it, some people come over here and don’t try it and say that they don’t want to do it. You know it’s just something that I’ve got to try and in a sense, yeah, I’m committed to doing it and I will do it, but that doesn’t mean to say if I’ll like it or not, but who knows. It could be my strong suit because I’ve never done it before, could be my weak thing, who knows.”

Before 2021, JHR’s most recent start was the 2019 Indianapolis 500. Yes, that same race where the team built up a car from scratch in two days. After Kyle Kaiser crashed their primary car on Fast Friday, the team knocked out Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso by 0.0129 seconds over a 10-mile qualifying run.