Callum Ilott completed his first weekend as a Red Bull-backed driver in the FIA European Formula 3 Championship at Silverstone with two top ten finishes for Carlin.
Despite this, the sixteen-year-old Briton admitted his disappointment with his results however, with Ilott hoping to be higher up in the races after being fast in the day of testing on Tuesday. He was unhappy with his qualifying efforts in particular, despite getting inside the top ten for all three races.
“I am a bit disappointed to be honest,” reflected Ilott. “I had hopped for more. The others turned up the power for the weekend, especially the Prema guys.
“I needed to get more out of qualifying. In the first session I could not get track position, there was a lot of traffic and I just didn’t have a clear run when I had the tyres.
“In the second session I was missing some speed, it was mainly getting out of the corners that wasn’t working for me, some mid corner, it meant that I was lacking speed down the straights. Still I learnt a lot.”
Ilott took tenth place in race one and ninth in race two, but was unhappy with his starts, having lost places in all three races. Despite this, he has hope that his season will improve from now on.
“Obviously I’ve got plenty to work on,” said Ilott. “My starts didn’t help, I bogged down or I had wheel spin so I lost places off the grid and I need to find the mid point. I was happier with Race 3 even though I still lost places at the start.
“Then I got going and found a good rhythm, mid race when I set my fastest lap, I was running a tenth or two quicker than the guys up front so we know that better things are possible.”
