Last season, Logan Sargeant was let go by Williams, but the home crowd at the Grands Prix of Las Vegas, Miami, and the United States may have a driver to cheer for again next season. If advisor Mario Andretti has his way, IndyCar driver Colton Herta is the top candidate for one of the vacant seats at the new Cadillac Formula 1 team.
With less than twelve months before Cadillac is on the F1 grid, time is ticking for the American team to select its line-up. “It’s clear that the goal is to have at least one American driver and then another experienced driver alongside him, and to start that way,” Mario Andretti tells Motorsport.com.
Colton Herta is ‘very high’ on the list of the 1978 Formula 1 world champion. “If you look back at the steps Colton has taken in his early career, you see that he started in Formula 3, that he raced there with Lando Norris and that he has done a few Formula 1 tests. Zak Brown gave him a good chance in Portimão. You should see the report we got from Andrea Stella. Andrea is someone who tells it like it is, so Colton is a great candidate. Of course, he still has to prove it, but in my opinion, he’s a good bet.”
Ingredients for a Title
Herta finished last season as runner-up in the IndyCar Series, his best season to date. He scored two victories, one of which was his first on an oval circuit. Andretti is convinced that the American could have won the championship without ‘any mistakes’, but according to him, this mainly proves what the 24-year-old driver is capable of. “There were a few mistakes that cost him the championship last year, and unfortunately that sometimes happens. Sometimes you put yourself under too much pressure, and then you make that mistake. But if you look at the ingredients, he has the ingredients for a title.”
