PREMA Racing completed its debut NTT INDYCAR SERIES race at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg with both drivers finishing on the lead lap and without major issue in the race. Callum Ilott placed 19th and Robert Shwartzman on his debut in 20th.
The 100-lap race began with the team’s drivers on split strategies. Shwartzman was on the softer compound of tires and Ilott on the harder tires. Both drivers navigated an incident at Turn Three, which brought the race to a full course caution.
Shwartzman was among those to pit to discard the soft tires as early as possible, with over half of the field starting on them, while Ilott stayed out and ran in the top 10 once the race resumed.
Like most of the field, both drivers opted for a three-stop strategy. Ilott made his first stop on lap 33 for another set of harder tires. Meanwhile Shwartzman ran the black-sidewalled Firestones for the remainder of the race, pitting on laps 38 and 70.
Ilott continued to run in the top half of the order before his second stop for the softer tires on lap 60, keeping them until lap 71 for a final push on the harder tires, while Shwartzman showed strong, consistent race pace as his experience continues to build.
The lap one caution proved to be the only interruption in the race, which made it a straight race to the chequered flag after the lap seven restart.
The NTT INDYCAR SERIES returns at Thermal Club on March 23, for the first road course of the 2025 season.
#83 - Robert Shwartzman
"This is the first race and we didn’t have particularly high expectations today, but I think we maximised most of it, what we could. Today, we did what we could but again, we had an issue with the radio. That compromised the whole strategy. I was basically left more or less on my own figuring things out, which was a bit difficult because it’s our first time here. I didn't know a lot of things that were going on. I think we could have done a bit better in terms of position, but I tried my best out there and that is the most important thing. We will all now work really hard in the three weeks we have before the next race, taking the learnings from this weekend."
#90 - Callum Ilott
"It was a solid first race from us today. There were no big mistakes on anyone's side, aside from a little one I had at Turn 10 which I recovered from pretty quickly. We were P19 and P20 for the team, on the lead lap, which I think is a good start. We have some areas where we can work on, but overall the pace was pretty good. We chose to start on the primaries, and with the crash at the start we were put at a bit of a disadvantage by having to do a longer stint on the alternates than the other strategy. I think in a different circumstance with this strategy we could have been a bit higher up but we can’t complain at all. We had good pace when we were fighting with the others. I’m really happy in general. We will debrief and work on lots of things to take to Thermal."