IndyCar race-winner Colton Herta hasn’t given up hope he may race in Formula 1 one day after a potential chance to join the series through Andretti last year failed to materialise.
Michael Andretti was involved in negotiations to take over Sauber, which runs Alfa Romeo’s F1 team, until the deal fell apart in October. The former McLaren F1 racer planned to place Herta at the team had his plans come to fruition.Herta ended last year’s IndyCar season strongly with wins in the final two races. However he is still nurturing hopes of becoming America’s first F1 driver since his team mate Alexander Rossi seven years ago.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to do Formula 1,” said Herta. “I want to do a lot of stuff in my career. But a lot of it also needs certain timing.”
Herta, who was Lando Norris’s team mate in Britain’s MSA Formula (now British Formula 4) series in 2015, says he has time on his side if the chance to race in F1 arises soon.
“Formula 1 is one of those things [that] if you’re 28, you’re not going to Formula 1, unfortunately, that’s just how it works. So the time is right for me.
“If I got the opportunity, I’d have to have a good think about it. But I most likely would do it because I want to run in Formula 1 at some point.
“But I’m definitely not disappointed at all in IndyCar,” Herta added. “I like this series more than any series in the world, and I enjoy racing in a lot. But there’s just a lot of stuff that I’d like to try my racing career outside of IndyCar also.”
Ahead of his fourth full season in IndyCar, Herta said he is aiming to raise his game on the oval circuits which make up five of this year’s 17 races.
“I really want to win a race on on an oval,” he said. “We’ve had so much speed on some different ovals at different times, but I don’t even think I’ve finished on the podium on an oval yet. We’ve been close, finished fourth a few times, fifth a few times at some places. But that’s something that I really want to work on for 2022.
“Specifically Texas: In 2019 I was fast there but ever since then, with the Aeroscreen, we’ve just struggled there as a team. So we’re working on that and obviously focussing on Iowa now, we have a test at Iowa later in the year, so that’ll be interesting.”
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Jere (@jerejj)
3rd February 2022, 7:55
Doubtful. The F1 train is most likely running away from him.
He should first obtain some more super license points, though.
Why he never was a realistic option in the first place, even if the Andretti buyout attempt succeeded.
Short on 40 SL pts & failing to meet the necessary criterion for the alternative 30 minimum only applicable for a force majeure situation caused by COVID, i.e., a heavily disrupted campaign like with Juri Vips.
Nevertheless, drivers racing in the US are always disadvantaged versus those climbing through FIA-governed lower single-seater categories in Europe, so extremely unlikely for him anymore.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
3rd February 2022, 9:53
What I’ve seen of him I really like, in Nashville he seemed leagues ahead for the rest. Unfortunately for Colton I don’t own an F1 team.
Dex
3rd February 2022, 10:17
Such an irony, we’ll end up with three races in USA whilst it’s (almost) impossible for their drivers to compete. Yes, sure, they can, but only if they move to Europe at the very young age and compete in some junior categories instead of Indycar. I say this is idiotic, also it’s 2022 and we have a legal monopoly over drivers market.
JackySteeg (@jackysteeg)
3rd February 2022, 12:20
It blows my mind that this guy (and Pato O’Ward, for that matter) lack the super license points. He’s holding his own against seasoned professionals who – in some cases – have been at that level for decades. But somehow that’s less valuable than beating a bunch of other junior drivers and rich kids in F2.
I get why the system is like that, the FIA wants everyone to go down it’s own linear path, and IndyCar doesn’t want to be an F1 feeder series. Fine. But I do hope if anyone offers him a place in F1, common sense prevails.
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
3rd February 2022, 15:56
If Mr Herta wants to be in Formula 1, he should focus on being successful enough to earn a super license.
Michael
4th February 2022, 16:58
He graduated to Indy Car at a very young age and has done pretty well against professional experienced drivers. He’s finished 7th, 3rd and 5th in the champiosnhip in the last 3 years which would net him 32 Superlicense points. Not enough for the 40. He would have earned more points in F3 with the same championship finishes against a weaker field (still not 40 though). However if he wanted he could pay for a Formula Regional Asia drive and qualify for a superlicense with a top 4 championship finish.
Inexplicably 4th place in a Formula Regional Asia / Americas / Japan championship earns the same points as 4th place in Indycar, Super Formula Formula E and Formula Regional Europe. In every other champiosnhip position FRA/A/J earns less, sometimes substatantially less… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIA_Super_Licence#endnote_3