Ilott ‘not on the list’ for 2021 Haas race seat

Callum Ilott is not a candidate to race for Haas next year even though he will drive for them in FP1 at the Nurburgring, says team boss Guenther Steiner.

The Briton, who is second in this season’s F2 championship, makes his F1 race weekend bow in Friday morning practice for the Eifel Grand Prix in Germany.

Haasarereported to be considering up to 10 driversto compete for them in 2021, with doubts over the futures ofRomain Grosjeanand Kevin Magnussen who have both been at the team since 2017 and the Frenchman a year longer than that.

However, team principal Steiner insisted he could not make a unilateral decision about hiring Ilott because the 21-year-old is attached to the Ferrari Driver Academy.

“He’s not on the list because he’s a Ferrari driver. He’s their driver, so therefore he’s not on the list,” said Steiner, quoted byAutosport.

“I don’t know what they’re doing with him, what they’re planning with him and so on. Therefore at the moment he’s not on the list.

“我很尊重他,因为他的瑞士nd in the F2 championship which means he’s pretty good.

“I met him the first time this morning briefly, we’ll have a meeting this afternoon, so I will learn a little bit more about him.

“I’m very honest, he’s not on the list now. Maybe he’s on the list tomorrow, I don’t know that. It will not be dependent on the FP1 result.

“For sure if he does one thing which he shouldn’t be doing, then he’s not on the list for sure anymore, like if he crashes the car.”

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Steiner admitted progress is only steady in terms of narrowing down the options for who will be the Haas race drivers next year.

“My comment today on drivers is we are getting there,” said Steiner.

“We are getting there slowly. It’s not an easy task to do this, but I would say we are getting there.

“I don’t want to go into any detail of how many are there [on the short-list].

“This is not without disrespect to anything, it’s just right, then we are sitting here just speaking about something we have been covering the last two months now.

“We are getting there and as soon as we know, we will announce it, and hopefully it’s not too far out for your benefit and for my one as well, so you’re not busting my you-know-what.”

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