Colton Herta, certainly one of America’s brightest racing abilities and a star of IndyCar, is betting on his personal expertise that few drivers ever have: he is going backward in a bid to maneuver ahead by racing in Formulation 1’s major feeder collection in 2026.
Becoming a member of the Formulation 2 grid on the age of 25 (he’ll flip 26 after the season’s first race) with the Hitech workforce is an unprecedented and deeply dangerous step on the planet of recent motor racing. The problem shall be enormous: after years on the ladder that led as much as IndyCar, it is again to high school. F2 options circuits he has by no means raced on earlier than, Pirelli tires which can be extremely sophisticated and irritating for drivers to know, in opposition to a subject of younger abilities who’ve been racing and acclimating to these circumstances for years.
The expectations shall be enormous — unrealistic, maybe, given the size of the problem — and to many within the F1 paddock it’s a boom-or-bust resolution. The optics of Herta struggling in a subject of drivers considerably youthful can be tough to handle, and F2 is a collection identified for a way laborious it’s for drivers to remain constant all through a season: Oliver Bearman and Kimi Antonelli have been shining examples of that in 2024.
Herta, who already has a foot within the F1 door as check driver of the incoming Cadillac workforce, has no illusions concerning the job at hand.
“I take a look at it as that is in all probability my final shot at Formulation 1, given my age and every thing thought of,” he informed ESPN concerning the transfer. “For positive, it is untried and untested and it will be a variety of new stuff for me, one thing new to work on and be taught. I am excited.”
The backing of Cadillac and its F1 workforce boss Graeme Lowdon was key within the resolution. The incoming American outfit is now simply months away from its debut on the 2026 Australian Grand Prix, and whereas it didn’t fulfill the early want of coming into the game with an American driver in certainly one of its two seats, opting as a substitute for the expertise of race winners Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez, Herta’s distinguished position throughout the workforce — which is able to embrace a check program and at the least one Friday observe session at a grand prix — can depart little doubt what the corporate’s long-term plans for him are.
However, he was not absolutely bought on the F2 thought when first pitched.
“I feel the great factor is Graeme’s a really convincing individual,” Herta joked about what made him determine on the F2 route. “Graeme talked about it final 12 months about midway by the IndyCar season. We began wanting into it and type of the positives and negatives of it, and I feel the positives type of fairly closely outweighed the negatives of it. I feel it may be cool.
“It is an necessary step for me. I feel it is an important alternative for me to be taught automobiles, tires, monitor, and so forth., and actually type of put me on the entrance foot for each time I do get an opportunity in Formulation 1 to have the ability to achieve success.”
With Cadillac making it clear it was their most popular choice to make him F1 prepared, it grew to become a no brainer, no matter what the surface noise could be.
“I feel [Lowdon] and some different folks behind the scenes type of made it a straightforward resolution,” Herta mentioned. “They laid it out. They mentioned, ‘Look, that is what we need to do.’ I imply, there’s nothing actually on the market that, like, ‘Oh, I want to do that, I want to do this.’
“Crucial factor is to be taught, proper? Simply type of perceive what is going on on, and that is type of been what’s been informed to me from the Formulation 1 facet of the workforce is admittedly, to ensure that me to actually assist as my job as a check driver for the workforce, it will be to know the tracks, perceive the tires. And this can be a nice alternative for me to do this.”
Herta downplayed the suggestion that the strain is on to be aggressive and a title contender from the start.
“It is a robust championship,” he mentioned. “It is extraordinarily good groups, very sensible engineers. They’ve all been doing it for a very long time.
“And, clearly, the drivers you see … principally any of the highest 5 guys are at all times F1 prepared. And each time they do make that step up, they’re fairly shortly on the tempo, proper? In order that they’re just about absolutely developed at that time so far as the main issues and the race craft and the general velocity and the information of the best way to drive a race automotive is already there.
“So it looks like a really aggressive {and professional} championship, however we’re additionally opponents, proper? Like, we need to win races … That is nonetheless in the end the objective.”
Herta’s transfer to F2 is borne out of two totally different quirks of recent racing: one primarily based round geography and the opposite across the FIA’s superlicense system.
Younger American karting abilities should make a really tough resolution at a really early age: race domestically throughout the U.S., and up by the gathering of championships that lead on to IndyCar and the IMSA endurance championship, or to maneuver to Europe and sort out the open-wheel racing ladder there. The latter is an costly and extremely dangerous choice, and it partially explains why there are comparatively few Individuals within the F1 pyramid. Some proficient sufficient can briefly experiment with each: Herta dipped his foot within the European waters in 2015 and 2016 with Carlin — he was teammates of Lando Norris in British Formulation 3 — and picked up a handful of wins throughout varied championships, however when IndyCar feeder collection IndyLights got here calling in 2017, it closed the door on that pathway.
Then got here the FIA superlicense system, which successfully units the baseline requirement wanted for entry to Formulation 1 and has saved Herta at arm’s size for some time. The system arms out totally different factors to ending positions in varied FIA championship collection; it was initially carried out so drivers with restricted expertise or success in junior classes couldn’t merely purchase a seat on the grid — the dreaded “pay driver” now largely consigned to a earlier period.
Many have complained about how poorly IndyCar — a non-FIA championship — is weighted in comparison with the Formulation 3 and Formulation 2 championships. McLaren driver and 2025 title championship contender Norris spoke out about this superlicense oddity when requested about Herta’s potential F2 transfer final month.
“[Herta’s] in all probability higher than most drivers which can be within the ranks and arising in F3 or F2, so I do not suppose he ought to have to race in F2, if I used to be the boss,” Norris mentioned in September. “IndyCar is among the hardest collection on the planet. I do not know what number of [superlicense] factors they get in Indycar, however I’d put them above the extent of Formulation 2.”
Whereas IndyCar is extensively thought to be one of many hardest and most prestigious racing collection on the planet, boasting a Triple Crown occasion (the Indianapolis 500) as its greatest race, its drivers are penalized by how comparatively few FIA superlicense factors the championship awards in a system largely geared in favor of FIA competitors. A title win in IndyCar grants the complete 40 factors wanted for F1 eligibility, however second place earns simply 30 and third solely 20; in comparison with Formulation 2, the place the highest three all obtain the complete 40. That steep dropoff has restricted Herta’s prospects. He was runner-up in 2024, for instance, however received solely seven superlicense factors for ending seventh on this 12 months’s IndyCar championship, which means he nonetheless fell wanting the required tally, a quirk of a system that values F1’s feeder collection much more generously than an elite, non-FIA senior competitors.
Herta has additionally needed to be extremely affected person. In 2021, it appeared like he was about to participate in FP1 on the U.S. Grand Prix as Michael Andretti checked out a deal to purchase Sauber, however each the observe trip and the buyout in the end fell by. Herta at all times felt just like the more than likely identify to accompany Andretti to F1, and he remained so when the previous McLaren driver was pushed apart as Common Motors ramped up its involvement to full dedication — it now features a plan to be racing with American-built Cadillac engines by the tip of the last decade.
Now absolutely built-in into the operation of F1’s eleventh workforce, Herta seems to be at his lengthy wait as a blessing in disguise.
“It’s weird,” Herta mentioned of the superlicense factors system. “You recognize, I feel it is good and it is dangerous. For me, it is irritating for thus a few years of being so shut and never having the ability to do it. Like I mentioned, that is in all probability my final shot, and I feel that is additionally one of many coolest alternatives I have been given so far as Formulation 1 goes. You recognize, to be an American driver aligned with an American workforce, backed by an American engine producer, it really is particular.
“So it is an important alternative and, I feel the positives of not making it to Formulation 1 earlier can be that I’ve this chance to actually be taught earlier than I get type of dropped into the deep finish of being a Formulation 1 driver, hopefully in some unspecified time in the future. I feel this units me up actually properly to have the ability to, if I do make it, be on the tempo as quick as potential.”
On Norris’ ringing endorsement, Herta added: “That was good to listen to. I actually loved my time being over there racing in England, and it was enjoyable to be teammates with Lando.
“He is simple to get together with, actually fast. I feel we each type of discovered so much off one another, and in order that was a very good 12 months for me to type of see what he was capable of do in a race automotive and be taught off of that. Stayed involved with him from then. It has been cool to see what he is been doing and what he is been capable of do. So yeah, to have a man that is profitable Formulation 1 races and whatnot say that about you, for positive, it type of helps the trigger, I assume.”
Herta’s Formulation 2 debut with Hitech shall be throughout the weekend of Formulation 1’s 2026 curtain-raising Australian Grand Prix, which can even be Cadillac’s first in F1. Herta will race within the Melbourne dash race on March 7, earlier than the function race on March 8.