The Briton will join Norman Nato and Will Stevens in Jota's Porsche 963 #12 designed by Hertz, while in the second German LMDh entered in the Hypercar Class there will be Jenson Button, Formula 1 world champion in 2009, Phil Hanson and Oliver Rasmussen with the #38.
Speaking on Saturday's stage atAutosport International Show, Ilott admitted he expected to remain with Juncos-Holinger for a third season with the team he joined for the final three rounds of the 2021 season, but welcomed the chance to make a further change in a career with sportscars started promisingly with the Ferrari GTs in the same year.
Juncos-Holinger announced in October that Ilott would part ways with the team and a few days later revealed the hiring of Romain Grosjean, but Ilott explained that the agreement had already been reached immediately after the final round of the 2023 WEC in Bahrain .
“It's honestly a big surprise,” said Ilott, who was joined on stage by Jota team boss Sam Hignett. “I expected to stay in IndyCar, that was the original plan, but circumstances changed, as sometimes happens in IndyCar. life”.
“We reached out to Sam to see what was going on, what the situation was and right away I think he was quite excited to hear from me. They were supposed to go to Bahrain to have the last race and discuss a couple of things related to their overall plan.”
“Straight after Bahrain I got the news that we should talk about it; I think from then on it was very simple and we moved on quickly. I'm really grateful for that and to be honest it's a beautiful car in a beautiful championship, I think that we have great potential to do great work.”
Photo by: Shameem Fahath
#38 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963 : Antonio Felix Da Costa, Will Stevens, Yifei Ye
Hignett said Jota had assumed Ilott would go to Ferrari with the works team in Hypercar before moving to IndyCar, but always keeping an eye on him in subsequent years.
“When the opportunity arose to speak to Callum and a place opened up in what will now be car #12, it made perfect sense to call him and see if a deal could be worked out,” he said.
“I have to compliment Callum and his management, it's the easiest deal I've ever done.”
Ilott has already driven the 963 in Qatar, where the 2024 WEC calendar opens on March 2, and said he was impressed by its versatility and complexity.
“I did a ride in Qatar a month or two ago, it's a beast! It's almost like an off-road, on-track, you can go on anything you want. Up to a limit! Compared to what I'm used to, it's really versatile “.
“It's difficult to drive in a way because it's quite heavy, but with the hybrid drive and the power and everything it's beautiful! It's complex, a bit like F1 in terms of regeneration, deployment and what you have to manage as a driver, but it's a fantastic car to drive.”
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