Colton Herta: ‘It would be foolish to think that I’ll win my first F2 race’

IndyCar frontrunner Colton Herta is under no illusion that he will dominate Formula 2 as he joins Formula 1’s feeder series in 2026.

2024 IndyCar runner-up Herta was hired by Cadillac – F1’s newest team – as a test driver, with the American outfit making its debut in the world championship in 2026.

Cadillac picked veterans Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as its race drivers for next year, but has been keen to promote American talent and therefore turned to Herta, who has represented sister squad Andretti in IndyCar since 2020 – taking seventh in the 2025 standings.

Although he raced in Britain’s Formula 4 championship and Euroformula Open, the 25-year-old Californian has spent most of his career stateside. Herta has therefore been given the challenge of an F2 move to prepare for a potential F1 promotion, with just eighth place needed for superlicence eligibility – but he will likely need better to make a case for a Cadillac seat.

But F2 is a notoriously tricky category to get to grips with, as the likes of Super Formula champion Ritomo Miyata have experienced, not least due to the specific management requirements of the Pirelli rubber; Herta himself is aware that he will struggle to match F2 frontrunners – and perhaps even F3 graduates – from the get-go.

“The main thing is whenever I am in the race car, I want to be competitive,” he told F2’s official website. “That has to be the goal, to be competitive, and try to achieve that as quickly as possible.

“It would be foolish to sit here and think that I will be on the pace right away, that I will be on the pace and ready to win in my first race. I may be older, but speed-wise, these guys are just as fast as anybody out there.

Colton Herta, Andretti Global

Photo by: Penske Entertainment

“I definitely know the task at hand, I know it's going to be a tough one, but I look forward to it. I’m here to learn, here to drive and to hopefully be fast.”

Herta was recently spotted testing a previous-generation F2 car on a wet Monza track and also got in touch with some F2 graduates that are currently racing in IndyCar – no names were mentioned, but the drivers fitting that description are Marcus Armstrong, Santino Ferrucci, Callum Ilott, Christian Lundgaard and Robert Shwartzman.

“It's good conversations to have,” Herta explained. “Just to understand that it is going to be different for me coming over for a whole bunch of reasons.

“But the racing mainly is what I need to be focused on, being fast in the race car and that's where the majority of the talk has been, on how to best prepare me before I hop in the race car.”

Herta will make his F2 move with the Hitech squad which fellow IndyCar driver Armstrong successfully raced for in 2022.

Dino Beganovic, Hitech TGR

Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd

The outfit that has been a consistent frontrunner since it joined F2 in 2020 and is in contention for this year’s teams’ title thanks to consistent podium finisher Luke Browning and regular points scorer Dino Beganovic – both of them competing in their first full F2 campaign.

“I think when we were looking at teams, myself and also with Cadillac, the biggest thing is it had to be results driven,” he clarified.

“I think Hitech checks those boxes as a professional outfit, and as you can see how this year is going and the past seasons, not only in F2 but also in Formula 3 and in F4. Basically, they seem to excel in everything and there is a reason for that.

“After having some meetings here, and getting to know people, the decision was made on its own. It was really simple to see that this is a professional organisation, and one that I feel will best prepare me to be ready for Formula 1.”