Second win of the FIA European F3 season for Callum Ilott
The rising teenager delivered a home win for his Italian team Prema after a dominant victory in the second weekend of the FIA European F3 Championship. In a repeat of his success at Silverstone earlier this month, Ilott’s win came in the final race of the Monza weekend as once again, he had to dig deep to turnaround his fortunes.
Race one had seen Ilott start fourth, but early damage to the car after contact left him struggling for straight line speed. Thereafter, Carlin driver Jake Dennis, intent on keeping the team’s opposition behind him, successfully backed Ilott up into the pack of following drivers and into the lower points paying positions that ultimately resulted in a frustrating ninth place.
The weekend’s second race was another epic ‘Monza slipstreamer’ with Ilott again in the thick of the action through the whole race. Starting once more from fourth, Ilott made a good start, but jostling saw him drop back and despite securing the fastest lap of the race, Ilott was eventually to finish seventh. A below par performance from the British driver.The final race of the weekend held on Sunday afternoon in the Italian royal park saw Ilott deliver a performance of character. Starting third on the grid, the 18-year-old made a superb getaway to leapfrog the front row sitters and lead into the first chicane. From there on in, Ilott controlled the race superbly and was never under real pressure in the 35 minute race. The win leaves him in the third spot in the championship standings and in touch with the other race winners from Silverstone and Monza, Joel Eriksson and Lando Norris.
“I’m really happy to get a win here, especially as it’s the home race for Prema,” says Ilott, who is being backed by Adrian Flux. “We knew we had good pace but I delivered a mixed performance over the weekend and it was important I delivered a strong result in race 3. Looking at the quality of drivers in this year’s Championship I need to maximise opportunities in each race as every point is going to count.”
Ilott’s next event takes him to the technical and challenging street circuit around the French town of Pau on May 20th and 21st.
Callum Ilott is one of Britain’s upcoming young driving talents. At 12, he secured his first British national karting championship and just one year later dominated the international under 15s KFJ category with multiple championship wins and was nominated as the youngest ever WSK Driver of the Year in 2012.
Aged 15, he won the CIK-FIA European Karting Championship, the WSK Super Master Series and finished fourth in the CIK-FIA World Championship. Aged 16, Callum was Red Bull’s first ever driver to progress from karts to F3 to race in the FIA F3 European Championship securing a podium at the Nürburgring.
Last year, Callum won his first races in cars and finished sixth in the standings with VAR. In 2017, the BRDC SuperStar will be driving for championship-winning team PREMA Powerteam.
