PREMA Racing fired the Chevrolet engines in the back of its new and untested cars just days before sending its trucks to California for Tuesday’s test at The Thermal Club and Thursday’s upcoming visit to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
The late start to the new IndyCar Series team’s on-track program was far from optimal, but the extra time spent preparing itself was worth it as the European team’s first foray into American open-wheel racing was relatively smooth, and significant pace was shown.
PREMA’s Robert Shwartzman, an early frontrunner for Rookie of The Year honors, visited the top of Thermal’s running order on two occasions and ended the day third-fastest, just 0.175s behind Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson, who led the six drivers in attendance. Callum Ilott dealt with new-car gremlins for most of the morning, but rallied in the afternoon to run fourth, 0.247s shy of Ericsson.
It was Ilott’s second first-day in IndyCar, having welcomed the renamed Juncos Hollinger Racing back to the series in 2021 and now PREMA on its maiden outing in 2025.
“For a first day, it’s probably one of the best first days you can get, even with that stuff in the morning,” the Briton told RACER. “The team’s happy, and we’ve got a lot of things to work on and improve, but that’s that part of the checklist. But you know, the first thing being car speed; you don’t normally unlock that very, very quickly. And being out first test, there’s areas that we should work on and can improve pretty easily. It was pretty impressive to be close like that.”
Ilott returns to PREMA after finding great success with the team on the ladder to Formula 1. The blend of team veterans from Europe and IndyCar veterans who joined during the ramp-up process, including Ilott’s former and now current race engineer Steve Barker from Juncos Hollinger, has given the program a head start on its new American adventure.