Callum Ilott believes "there's not really any pressure" on his Prema team to deliver immediate results as a newcomer to IndyCar starting from scratch. But the Italian squad's pedigree as serial winners in every championship it contests, winning the GP2 title at the first attempt with Pierre Gasly in 2016, means considerable curiosity surrounds its arrival with two Chevrolet-powered entries. So what should be expected?
Prema's first assault on North America's premier open-wheel championship in 2025 marks a new chapter in the team's esteemed history. It is well-known for producing Formula 1 talent, with graduates at all but three teams this year, and translated its winning formula to sportscar racing by claiming the European Le Mans Series LMP2 crown at the first attempt in 2022. But is it realistic to expect the same for its arrival into a category featuring ovals, road courses and street courses?
Speaking last week at IndyCar's media day, Ilott was keen to play down expectations. Like rookie team-mate Robert Shwartzman, who also has extensive Prema experience having won the inaugural GP3 title in 2019 and finished second in the 2020 Formula 2 standings, the Briton previously raced for Rene Rosin's team in the 2017 European Formula 3 championship so is familiar with its prowess.
Crucially, Ilott also has IndyCar experience as a full-timer for Juncos Hollinger Racing in 2022-23 and made three cameo outings as a substitute driver for the injured David Malukas at Arrow McLaren last year alongside his main programme in the World Endurance Championship.
But having recognised that "it's definitely a lot more work starting from scratch than all the other teams have from the end of last season", Ilott anticipates that "we're going to have to be patient".
"You never know at which point it kind of clicks and the results start coming," he said.
"That's one of the kind of founding points that I want to take through the season, is just to not push anyone too far, work and work and work, but what we have is what we've got.
"And beyond that, obviously being the kind of veteran driver in the team, although I'm still young and not many seasons in IndyCar, but with two different teams, is to take that and to expand within the team, keep everyone positive, and move forward. It's not simple, but just keeping it simple is important."
Shwartzman remarked that both parties have "full trust that we can win here together", but agrees that there is little expectation to hit the ground running.
"We have nothing to lose, we have only to gain so that's the mentality," said Shwartzman, who like Ilott was previously on the books of Ferrari's junior programme and was a race-winner in the WEC last season.
"We come here and I have zero pressure. I just want to enjoy. I want to have fun. I'm sure that we're going to have it and we're going to come up to that level.
"We're going to come up to winning, and that's what we are here for and that's what Prema showed in Europe, I showed in Europe. So we have everything. We just obviously need some time.
"At the beginning, who knows. We don't know how much we're going to struggle. Is it going to be very difficult, medium, light?
"I have no idea, we'll see. But in any circumstance, I will do my best to always deliver. And again, I don't feel any pressure because everything is new to me here."
For its maiden assault on IndyCar, Prema has amassed several experienced US open-wheel figures in senior leadership positions, including CEO Piers Phillips, merged with European mechanics.
A seven-time IndyCar race winner with Team Penske, Ryan Briscoe rejoins the team he won the Formula 3 Euro Series title for in 2003 as sporting advisor, while Romain Grosjean has been announced as its reserve driver after losing his seat at JHR.
Ilott will be reunited with his former JHR engineer Steve Barker, who is working under technical director Guillaume Capietto.
"It's a mix of people I have either worked with [or] seen and Steve is just the cherry on top for that," remarked Ilott. "It's perfect. I love the atmosphere right now."
But since those comments were made, Prema has suffered its first major setback with the departure of its newly hired head of engineering. The arrival of Michael Cannon from AJ Foyt Racing was a statement of intent that would shortcut its steep learning curve, with Ilott describing him at media day as "IndyCar's own Einstein".
Without Cannon in its roster, Prema's prospects become even more difficult to weigh up. Even with the engineer on side, Josef Newgarden admitted it was "hard to assess" how it would stack up.
"Some of this stuff you would say, well, crossover and they should know this and they should know that and they should just apply. Sometimes it doesn't work like that, every case is a little different," commented the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, who benefitted from working with Cannon last year as part of the engineering tie-up between his Penske squad and Foyt.
"So we'll see how they perform at Indianapolis, it's its own beast. But they'll definitely have a great opportunity to show up and be competitive right away.
"If that doesn't happen, then that's just the nature of motorsports. I'm sure they'll find their way at some point. They're a strong enough team. They'll have strong drivers, strong engineers. They will get there at some point, and I think they'll be a great addition."
As for Ilott, there remains a great deal of unknowns.
"We don't know what we're going to rock up with," he remarked before Cannon's departure became known. "There's a lot of preparation which is Indy-specific, which a lot of other teams have started on.
"Who knows at this point? It could be good. I think a lot of people are expecting us to be very good.
"But remember, that's with teams that have all the foundation, all the equipment to kind of select and choose from. We're starting from scratch and building everything from the beginning."
