Colton Herta has to prove he is ready to race in Formula 1 through his planned move to race in Formula 2 alongside his Cadillac F1 test role, according to Dan Towriss.
Cadillac announced Herta as a test driver last week, with the Californian leaving IndyCar to pursue his dream of racing in F1 in future. Alongside that confirmed position, Herta is set to compete in F2 to gain further experience and stay race sharp, and Towriss says that will be the 25-year-old’s shop window to try and earn a future F1 race seat.
“This is Formula 1, he needs to show that he’s ready to race on this big stage from that standpoint,” Towriss told RACER. “And I think it’s both what he’s learning and then showing and creating confidence into the team and management that he’s ready to go.”
There has yet to be final confirmation that Herta has secured a drive in F2 for next year, but Towriss says the timing was a challenge as it had to juggle the end of the IndyCar season and when most F2 seats are finalized.
“If you work backward and maybe just think about it from our perspective for a minute, we had to select and announce our Formula 1 drivers. And I think most would imagine that needed to come first.
“Colton’s got big shoes to fill in IndyCar. Will Power came on – that really can’t happen until the end of the season – and those two things have to happen simultaneously. We can’t just have the open seat. And then we needed to get all that done before the F2 season goes too crazy and there’s not a seat available for him.
“So there was definitely a whole choreography of this that wasn’t easy to pull off from that standpoint, when you think of all the pieces that had to fall into place just to have the opportunity for this to be possible.”
Team principal Graeme Lowdon says the Herta news came with recently-announced race drivers Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas having been informed, and understanding that Cadillac would already be planning for the future.
“Yes, they fully understand,” Lowdon confirmed to RACER. “And also, there’s no preordained route here or anything else like that.
“Both Valtteri and Checo have been in Formula 1 a long time and they know that every year there are drivers who want to replace them and the other 20 drivers on the grid. So this is no different. Just because we have our own race drivers doesn’t mean to say we shouldn’t be doing anything at all elsewhere. I think they’re all grown up enough to see that that’s the case.
“There are no givens here. Nothing is predetermined in this. We’ve said right from the start, everything we do is based on merit. And it happens that Colton is American and that’s a big plus for the fans and us as an American team.
“So it’s a kind of plus plus. But make no mistake, he is here on merit. And we just look at his track record to see that that’s the case.”
