Callum Ilott: “We’ll go and push for a win”
Callum Ilott is adamant Hertz Team JOTA will succeed in rebuilding the Porsche 963 No. 12 in time for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, round four of FIA WEC.
On Thursday, Hertz Team JOTA’s gold-liveried Porsche 963 No. 12 was nowhere to be seen on track at Le Mans. But don’t think for a second the No. 12 crew had a day off, quite the contrary.
The British outfit has spent day and night rebuilding the Hypercar that clinched overall win at the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, round three of the FIA WEC, on the back of Callum Ilott’s crash on Wednesday night.
The British driver heavily damaged his car’s chassis in hitting the Esses’ Armco wall in the dying moments of Wednesday night’s FP2. Luckily, Callum walked away unscathed. “As a driver, once you know you’re OK, you move to the team”, the 25-year-old driver tells fiawec.com. “The car is super safe. Porsche did a great job. All the teams hold themselves to a very high standard on the safety side. The series have also done a good job on it.”
“I felt very bad”
Nevertheless, Hertz Team JOTA were now looking at a prospect of a race not only against their 22 Hypercar opponents, but against the clock. Ultimately, their involvement for Thursday’s Hyperpole and the remaining free practice sessions was compromised. Yesterday, the team received the replacement monocoque they needed to start building back the 963 No. 12 from scratch.
“That’s a big workload for the team”, underlines Callum. “It’s probably the first time that I’ve put at risk in an endurance environment and I felt very bad for that. But once we knew the car was going to be put back together with the team working so hard, it’s okay. Now it’s about reset and get going again.”
All signs now point to Hertz Team JOTA being able to compete with their two Hypercars on Saturday when French football legend Zinédine Zidane will flag off FIA WEC’s flagship event at 4pm CET. “The monocoque had to be replaced and we’ve fit everything that we have run previously, so there should not really be any issues. We will start P8, it’s a good starting position for a long race. Obviously, if that crash was going to happen, that was the better day to do it.”
Despite the unexpected shortage of mileage, the Porsche No. 12 is expected to be a force to be reckoned with for the 92nd running of the French enduro, with Callum, WIll Stevens and Norman Nato showing very good pace on Wednesday. “We know we’ve got a good setup”, adds Callum. “Everything we’re putting on the car, except for the front right, has been run and we know everything works on that side. The mechanics were in great spirits yesterday, they were even enjoying it. The one thing they want out of all this is a win, so we’ll go and push for that.”
Hertz Team JOTA have been granted permission to shakedown their rebuilt Porsche 963 on Le Mans-Arnage’s airfield, near the circuit, this Friday evening. And it will be with Callum behind the wheel. “I’m doing the shakedown and then Will (Stevens) will do the warm-up on Saturday. All systems go!”
