Callum Ilott excited by FIA World Endurance Championship challenge after signing for Hertz Team JOTA

Callum Ilott will contest the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship racing a Porsche 963 Hypercar for Hertz Team JOTA.

The forthcoming season’s eight-round series will mark the former Bishop’s Stortford College student’s first association with the burgeoning British-based JOTA squad and his maiden WEC campaign.

Ilott’s career to date - more than 230 races - has been centred primarily on single-seaters. Having finished third in the 2018 GP3 Championship, he came second in the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship.

The former Red Bull Junior Team and Ferrari Driver Academy member was then test driver for Scuderia Ferrari and reserve driver for the Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen F1 team in 2021. More recently, Ilott raced in the IndyCar series in America, claiming two top-five placings and a creditable 12th in the Indy 500 last year.

He did venture away from single-seaters when he contested the 2021 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup and made his Le Mans 24 Hour race debut the same year, finishing third in the LMGTE Am category.

Now an exciting new era now dawns for the talented driver who sampled the 640bhp, 4.6-litre, twin-turbo V8 hybrid Porsche recently at a two-day test in Qatar, the venue for the opening WEC race in March.

“I’m so excited to be racing a Porsche in the top class with Hertz Team JOTA,” said Ilott. “I had a two-day test and the car felt great and was enjoyable to drive.

“I’ve been ultra-impressed with the team. They’re incredibly professional and already know that, with the Porsche, we’re going to be challenging for top results next season and hopefully success at Le Mans itself.

“This will mark my first full year in WEC having made a one-off Le Mans appearance a couple of years ago. The calendar looks fantastic and it’ll be great racing at some of the historic European tracks again like Imola, Spa and, of course, Le Mans.”