Herta finally clears his last F1 superlicence hurdle
Colton Herta has cleared the final hurdles to qualifying for a Formula 1 superlicence with his penalty-free and productive Friday practice outing for Cadillac at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Herta replaced Sergio Perez in FP1 at Interlagos, where he and Cadillac were seeking to seal the final point needed for Herta to be eligible for a superlicence.
He is a contender to race for the team next season but even if 2027 comes too soon getting a superlicence now would also make it much easier for Herta to remain an option in the years that follow, too.
A driver needs to accrue 40 superlicence points when applying for the first time. Cadillac thought this had already been achieved after his Mexico FP1 appearance a week ago, but Herta was still one short after a mix-up over a previous IndyCar result.
He was immediately back in the car for Brazil to seal the deal, though, so long as he completed 100km and did not get any penalty points on his licence in the session.
Herta could have been tripped up on either count. The red flag that emerged early in FP1 could have shortened running significantly enough that he did not do enough laps for it to count – and it also caused a brief scare when Herta went past the pit entry after the session had been red-flagged.
No action was taken as it was clear the red light panels came on too late for him to react and get into the pitlane.
Cadillac’s Marc Hynes said on Friday evening that the team wanted to be absolutely clear whether the 100km limit comes from total mileage or only mileage from timed laps, but either way Herta would be safe.
The Race understands the FIA is satisfied with what he did in FP1 so the superlicence point will be earned and his eligibility will be confirmed in due course.
Herta ran a full programme in FP1 with early laps on hard tyres hampered by some lock-ups before a switch to softs, which yielded a best lap 0.904s slower than Valtteri Bottas over one lap and 0.275s slower than the target Cadillac set him.
Herta was due to speak to media at the end of the day but withdrew from those activities as Cadillac said he was feeling unwell.
When Hynes spoke, though, he said Herta was making good progress with his F1 work dovetailed alongside a disappointing Formula 2 campaign in which he is only 19th in the standings.
"It was a huge step to come to Europe chasing the F1 dream, and I hugely admire that," Hynes said.
"F2 is difficult. You’ve got the guys that have come through in the same peer set from karting, they know all the tracks – you get very little mileage in F2 practice, they know the tyre very well, and the driving style is baked in. So to come into that is tough.
"FP1 is a good opportunity to get some mileage, and he’s got better every time. The nerves aren’t there that you have for the first one, and he’s really looking assured out there now."
