It’s a back-and-forth move we haven’t seen in major league sports.
imagine buffalo bill, josh allen announcing that he is leaving nfl Going back to college for a year after eight seasons with the hopes of joining a bigger, more global football series. It’s unimaginable for the reigning NFL MVP, but no imagination is needed in the IndyCar Series, where one of its biggest names, colton hertaHave chosen to take this real life path Departure from IndyCar to race in Formula 2 As a first step in the quest to become a Cadillac F1 driver.
Allen and Huerta, both generational talents, made their professional debuts within a week of each other in 2018 and have become some of the most recognizable stars in their respective worlds. In eight years, with 116 IndyCar starts, Herta most recently finished second in the IndyCar Championship for Andretti Global in 2024, has nine wins to his name, and, since 2019, has the distinction of becoming IndyCar’s youngest ever winner at the age of 18.
Now 25, the Californian is so immersed in IndyCar that the series used his face – and only his face – to decorate the driver section of its media guide for 2025. He may not be the biggest name in IndyCar, but Herta has been an Allen-esque figure – a perennial contender on the cusp of a breakthrough at the top – who guides him again. formula 1Ending school is a strange and unprecedented move.
Herta’s credentials are enough to go straight into F1, but he is attempting access to the grid, having been denied due to lacking the licensing points required to compete with the best of McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and the rest.
In a long time ago, a driver of Herta’s caliber could dream of racing in F1, and if they had the talent, Grand Prix racing would welcome them without any problems.
1978 F1 world champion Mario Andretti told ESPN, “I was midget in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, in 1963, at the age of 23, and who was I thinking about? Dan Gurney, (who) had just come to Formula 1.” “And I’m thinking, ‘Someday, I want to live there.’ And I was on a third-of-a-mile dirt track thinking about Formula 1.”
To capture the vanishing points, Herta and TWG Motorsports – the parent company behind Cadillac F1 which is owned by Los Angeles Lakers And los angeles dodgers Controlling owner Mark Walters – hatched a bold plan to unplug his marquee IndyCar driver from home and hire the high-tech TGR F2 team to run Herta in 2026 as a means of earning points and qualifying for a future F1 Superlicense.
Andretti said, “It’s now or never, and he knows that, and he’s willing to take that chance.” “That’s how important it is to him. And it’s a beautiful commitment that I would support 3,000 percent, going one step down and two steps up, but he knows what he’s doing and he’ll accomplish what he wants, I’m positive.”
In theory, a front-line IndyCar driver like Herta should dominate the developing kids in F2, but it won’t be an easy switch. This month he spent three days in Abu Dhabi for group testing and by the third day, Herta was 14th fastest of the 22 drivers present in the morning session and 19th fastest in the afternoon.
Herta commented at the midpoint of the test, “It was all about being comfortable, and I’m still a long way from being super comfortable in the car.” “It’s a good first step, it’s a very important three days for us, it’s important to maximize everything we do here. It’s fun to be here, it’s fun to be in the car in the offseason, and I’m looking forward to the next two days.”
New York’s Max Esterson was one of two Americans on the F2 grid in 2025, and although the Texan jack crawford Having almost won the championship at his third attempt, Esterson was concerned by the strange tire-use limitations and unfamiliar routines he found during his rookie F2 season. Compared to the relatively free and tough racing Herta is accustomed to in IndyCar with Firestone’s stronger rubber, Esterson says the Pirelli-shod F2 cars punish hard driving.
Esterson, who will switch to IMSA’s Endurance Sports Car Racing Series for 2026, explained, “The biggest change is the lack of useful laps. The way tires work, at almost every track, you do an out lap and then a warmup lap and then a push lap, and then you have to cool the tires. And the out laps and warmup laps are very structured and very slow; you’re not really driving at speed. Out The lap is maybe 20 or 30 seconds off speed and you don’t really do any turns off speed and it’s the same with the warmup lap, so it treats the tire surface very delicately, you just have to be careful not to damage the surface.
“Qualifying is hard to explain because you basically troll around, and then you get to Turn 1 at 200 mph and after trolling for the last five minutes you have to get through it with a good lap on the tires. You have practice sessions, but your practice is on harder compounds, so you basically have no experience on the qualifying tires before the first push lap, and then the tires on the first push lap. In IndyCar, you at least get a chance to drive and get more useful laps in, because it’s a different skill than old-school racing.”
Hertha’s former Andretti teammate Pato O’WardJoe tests for the McLaren F1 team and leads its Arrows McLaren IndyCar program, striving for Hertha’s success. Some of the cheerleading is personal, and some – the majority, obviously – is for IndyCar.
“I want him to do well,” O’Ward told ESPN. “Because it’s definitely a risk he’s taking, maybe not so much financially, but more of a risk personally. I hope he gets that Formula 1 seat that we all think he’s going to get, and when he gets there, hopefully he has a chance to really show what we all know he can do and what we’ve seen in IndyCar. He’s been a great competitor.
“I really hope he has the tools to showcase himself because a lot of it depends on the car given by his team. He’s very talented, but it won’t automatically come into his hands. You’re up against guys who have been there for many years, who know how everything works with more experience out there. There’s a steeper learning curve they have to go through.
“It’s a very different driving style and it takes time to adapt. It’s not just a flick of a switch, and it’s not like, ‘Hey, I’m going to be competitive right away.’ If it doesn’t get fixed, there will always be people who will cling to it and use it as fodder for anger. So this is the reality.”
From O’Ward’s perspective, front-running Herta in F2 would tarnish IndyCar’s reputation as a high-caliber series with formidable drivers. And if Herta struggles, O’Ward knows F1’s die-hard fan base will absolutely blast Herta and IndyCar for their perceived disparities.
“I think it’s our job to support his decision and wish him the best of luck to perform well for us,” said the Mexican driver. “Because he’s the first guy that’s going to make that step like he’s going from IndyCar to F2. And we want it to be good, because it will only help the situation for people who don’t have a lot of good things to say about IndyCar. A good performance by Colton would be a win for IndyCar.”
