Haas won’t be judging Ilott on ‘outright pace’ during F1 practice debut
Callum Ilott will be judged on consistency rather than “outright pace” during his Formula 1 practice debut at the Eifel Grand Prix, according to Haas team principal Guenther Steiner.
The Formula 2 championship frontrunner will get his first outing on an F1 grand prix weekend during FP1 on Friday morning at the Nurburgring, replacing Haas regular Romain Grosjean.
Ilott will be joined by fellow Ferrari Driver Academy member and F2 points leader Mick Schumacher in making his practice bow as Ferrari looks to give its leading prospects some track time in F1 machinery at Haas and Alfa Romeo respectively amid links to full-time graduations next year.
With Haas currently evaluating whether to completely revise its driver line-up next year, Ilott will have the chance to impress amid the prospect of at least one spare seat opening up at the US outfit.
But Steiner insists Ilott will not be required to set eye-catching laptimes in order to make his mark.
“The programme will be the same as it would be for one of our regular drivers,” Steiner said. “Maybe we tell him (Ilott) to be a little bit more careful when he goes out there as at the moment rain is predicted.
“Otherwise, we just always try and work through our FP1 program and do the best we can knowing that for a driver being in his first weekend session in a Formula 1 car – there’s a lot of pressure, a lot of unknowns.
“We don’t look too much at the time, we’re looking at his consistency and the feedback he can bring to the team,” he added.
“That’s where we judge a driver, not on outright pace, because 90 minutes is not a long time to be sitting in a car like a Formula 1 car.
“We’ll just try to manage that we get feedback and that he gets a good experience with us.”
Seat fit time for @callum_ilott
— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) October 5, 2020
He’s in the car for Friday’s #FP1 session at the Nürburgring #HaasF1 pic.twitter.com/89FV9Sn4OD
F1 is visiting the Nurburgring for the first time in seven years and with rain and cold conditions forecast across the weekend, Steiner is hopeful of a crazy race so that Haas can capitalise.
“Hopefully we can get a Mugello-style race,” he explained. “That was an interesting one for all the teams, all the spectators, basically it was great for everyone involved in it.
“The unknowns just kept coming towards us. Hopefully the same thing happens this weekend at the Nurburgring. As I said before, rain is the prediction for Germany, that will make things even more interesting.
“The best outcome will be if we have a good race, with lots of variables, and from our perspective, to come home with some points – something we haven’t achieved a lot of this year.”
