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Colton Herta remains ineligible for F1 due to IndyCar miscommunication; reportedly has ride if qualified
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- Colton Herta remains ineligible for F1 due to IndyCar miscommunication; reportedly has ride if qualified
Colton Herta's years-long quest for an FIA super license has taken another turn.
Herta – who left IndyCar following the 2025 season to race in Formula 2 with hopes of making Formula One – has had an F2 season worth forgetting. The former Andretti Global driver is 19th in the championship for Hitech GTR (with support from the Fishers-based Cadillac F1 team).
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Despite an underwhelming season, Herta has driven in select F1 practice sessions for Cadillac to earn super license points and gain familiarity with the car. He drove for Cadillac F1 in the first of two Friday practice sessions in Mexico City with the belief that if he completed 24 laps, he'd earn his 40th super license point – making him eligible to race in F1 in 2027.
Despite completing 30 laps, Herta found out hours after the practice session that he was still one super license point short. An error on IndyCar's website made Herta, Cadillac F1 and the FIA believe the driver entered Friday with 39 points. Instead, Herta remains a point short.
Herta finished seventh in last year's IndyCar championship. Both he and 2026 Indianapolis 500 winner Felix Rosenqvist scored 372 points in 2025. IndyCar's rules break a points tie by giving the higher position to the entry with the better best result of the season, and Rosenqvist's second-place finish at Road America last year trumped Herta's two third-place finishes. Therefore, Rosenqvist finished sixth, and Herta seventh.
Sometime this spring, the 2025 results on IndyCar.com incorrectly listed Herta as the driver who finished sixth in 2025, while Rosenqvist was listed seventh. The error was fixed before F1's Mexico City weekend got underway, leaving Herta still at 39 points after the practice session.
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"There was an anomaly in the website database display, which was caught this week and now reflects the official standings as they were published Aug. 31, 2025," IndyCar said in a statement.
Now, Herta must complete 100 km (62.14 miles) in practice at one of F1's final four races of the year to earn his super license.
"I don't know, I was under the impression coming into this weekend if I do this, I get the super license," Herta said Friday evening after the situation was cleared up. "So I guess we have to wait and see, I think I'm in the same boat as you guys. For me the biggest thing has been to not worry about that stuff and drive the car so that's kind of what I focused on because it has been a discussion in my career for a lot of years now."
Cadillac has not made it clear whether they plan to give Herta an F1 ride in 2027, even if he earns his 40th super license point. By making him eligible for F1, the team leaves its options open.
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On Wednesday, Cadillac signed Sergio Perez to a contract extension through 2029, leaving only one of the team's seats – currently driven by Valtteri Bottas – available for 2027. ESPN reported that Herta is in line to become Bottas' replacement , should the American driver earn his super license.
Although he's no longer a full-time member of Andretti Global, Herta planned to race in an extra entry for the team in this year's Indy 500 before an F2 race in Montreal was added on race day (May 24). Andretti Global and Cadillac F1 are both owned by TWG Motorsports.
"This is something I've always wanted to do. (F1) has been a goal of mine for a really long time, and equally was it a goal to get to IndyCar and win IndyCar races and win an IndyCar championship and a 500," Herta told IndyStar in May . "But there's certain timelines that need to happen, and this is just one thing in a long list of things I want to accomplish in my career. You see guys with 30-year careers, but really you just never know how long yours is going to be, and this is probably my best and last shot to make it to Formula 1. I'm going for it."
After a major miscommunication between the FIA, Cadillac and IndyCar, Herta is still chasing the agonizing 40 super license points needed to race in F1.
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Zion Brown is IndyStar's motorsports reporter. Follow him at @z10nbr0wn . Get IndyStar's motor sports coverage sent directly to your inbox with our Motor Sports newsletter . Subscribe to the YouTube channel IndyStar TV: IndyCar for a behind-the-scenes look at IndyCar and expert analysis .
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colton Herta remains ineligible for F1 due to IndyCar miscommunication; reportedly has ride if qualified
