When PREMA Racing revealed its plans to enter IndyCar for the 2025 season, many experts speculated that the team might either continue its focus on European talent, bringing young drivers from Europe to IndyCar or sign experienced IndyCar drivers to help establish its presence in the series.
In a way, PREMA has done both, but the key point is that both drivers the team has chosen for the 2025 season are former PREMA drivers. This shows that PREMA Racing is helping bridge the gap between American and European open-wheel racing.
In open-wheel motorsport, the Formula 1 junior ladder system is often considered the ultimate training ground for aspiring drivers.
This system is mainly based in Europe and includes many regional open-wheel racing series with full calendars and easy access to testing opportunities at nearby race tracks. The top talents from all over the world come to Europe to compete, hoping to impress Formula 1 teams, which are eager to recruit the best young drivers for their development programs.
America doesn’t have a similar system for open-wheel racing. In Europe, a young driver can start with a regional Formula 4 series, move up to regional Formula 3, and then progress to international Formula 3 and Formula 2 before getting a chance at F1. In America, there are fewer options.
A driver can choose between regional Formula 4 series or enter the IndyCar feeder series, but the ladder to IndyCar is limited to just a few races. Unlike in Europe, where a driver has multiple paths to progress through, in the U.S., there is generally one clear route to the top in IndyCar.
The European open-wheel ladder system has produced some exceptional drivers, but it also has a major drawback: the limited number of Formula 1 seats. There are only 20 available F1 seats each year, yet many talented drivers compete for them. In fact, a lot of the spots are already filled by drivers who are part of F1 teams’ development programs.
As a result, many skilled young drivers have to look elsewhere when it becomes clear that their F1 dreams aren’t coming true. Not every F1 season is like 2025, when several top drivers like Kimi Antonelli, Oliver Bearman, Jack Doohan, and Gabriel Bortoleto will graduate to higher categories of racing.
In many years, talented drivers like Antonio Felix da Costa, Robin Frijns, Sam Bird, Mitch Evans, and Felipe Drugovich end up having to find other opportunities, often outside of F1. PREMA Racing is now offering these drivers a chance to switch to IndyCar.
PREMA Racing is involved in everything from karting to Formula 2, giving young drivers a clear path to climb the ranks in the F1 ladder while working alongside familiar faces. While the team often fields drivers who are already part of F1 development programs, PREMA has come to be seen as a development program in itself.
The team is taking this idea further by starting an IndyCar program and signing two drivers who have raced with PREMA in the past.
Callum Ilott, who raced with PREMA in the 2017 Formula 3 championship and helped the team secure the teams’ title for the fifth consecutive year, has a strong background in open-wheel racing. After finishing second in the 2020 Formula 2 championship, Ilott missed out on an F1 seat, and instead, he moved to IndyCar.
However, his time at Juncos Hollinger Racing was short-lived after negative social media attention from fans of his teammate Agustin Canapino. In 2024, Ilott freelanced for Arrow McLaren before PREMA signed him for their IndyCar program.
PREMA also recently announced that it had signed Robert Shwartzman, who spent four years with the team in Formula 3 and Formula 2. Like Ilott, Shwartzman was a runner-up in F2 but couldn’t secure an F1 seat. He’s since worked as a test driver and participated in endurance racing.
Both Ilott and Shwartzman are talented drivers who showed great potential in the junior categories, but neither of them got the chance to compete in F1 due to circumstances outside their control. With F1 limiting the number of teams and drivers, more young talents are likely to face the same challenge.
By entering IndyCar, PREMA Racing is giving drivers like Ilott and Shwartzman a new path forward in open-wheel racing. The team has done something similar in the past when it launched its World Endurance Championship team.
Now, the junior racing ladder extends beyond Formula 2. While it may not lead to Formula 1, PREMA is providing a chance for young drivers to make a name for themselves in other prestigious racing series.
This move is helping raise the profile of IndyCar, which has become a popular destination for drivers who find their F1 dreams out of reach.
