F1 test driver Ilott to bid for Prancing Horse GT title
Ferrari Formula 1 test driver Callum Ilott will contest the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup with the
Iron Lynx team in 2021.
The Briton (below) will be part of a two-car factory attack on the five-round endurance leg of the GTWCE in 2021 by Iron Lynx as Ferrari bids to repeat the drivers’ title it won last year with Alessandro Pier Guidi and the AF Corse team. Ilott will share one of the team’s two Ferrari 488 GT3S with Ferrari F1 development driver Antonio Fuoco.
The two members of Ferrari’s Academy junior programme will be partnered by Davide Rigon, who has moved over from the marque’s World Endurance Championship GTE Pro line-up. Pier Guidi will be joined in the sister entry by fellow factory driver Nicklas Nielsen and
Frenchman Come Ledogar.
Ilott, who got his first taste of a 488 GT3 at Mugello last week, said: “To get my first experience in GT and endurance racing in such a competitive series is obviously a steep learning curve, but we’ve got a great line-up. I’m really excited to get to experience it, and it should be a lot of fun actually.”
Iron Lynx team boss Andrea Piccini expressed no doubts that Ilott will rapidly get up to speed in the GT3 car.
“I’m sure he is going to be fast,” he said. “Look at someone like [Raffaele] Marciello: he was quick straight away and within two seasons he was the fastest Mercedes driver.”
Ilott was announced by
Iron Lynx last week when the team took the wraps off its 2021 programme, which will encompass 14 Ferrari entries across five championships.
These include two cars in
GTE Am in the World Endurance Championship and an additional entry for the Le Mans 24 Hours.
Iron Lynx’s WEC assault incorporates the all-female line-up of Rahel Frey, Manuela Gostner and Michelle Gatting. The so-called ‘Iron Dames’ car will also contest the European Le Mans Series, with Katherine Legge replacing Gatting, as part of a three-car assault by the team. It will run a further two cars in the Le Mans Cup support series on the ELMS bill.