Callum Ilott: “I felt more familiar with the car and with how everything works”

Callum Ilott participated in his second free practice session of the season with the Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN team at the Red Bull Ring on Friday, and the young Briton says he felt he was able to learn a lot during his twenty-three-lap run.

The runner-up in the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship replaced Antonio Giovinazzi for the session, and he performed admirably to finish sixteenth fastest, less than a second shy on the team’s regular race driver Kimi Räikkönen.

Ilott had his first practice outing in the Portuguese Grand Prix earlier this year, and he felt more comfortable behind the wheel of the C41-Ferrari than he did at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve.

And Ilott felt he did a respectable job as he took to the track the majority of the field had raced at just last weekend.

“I really enjoyed the session today:  I feel I made a good progression and we were able to try and learn a good amount of things,” said Ilott.  “Jumping in the car when everyone else had a full week of running here is never easy, but I still feel it was a very positive session.

“We were able to address directly some of the key aspects the team wanted to check from last weekend and in the end we were able to do a run on soft tyres, which was fun.

“I felt more familiar with the car and with how everything works: I’m getting used to it and this allows me to work better, so I am satisfied with my day.”