That's it, Herta would finally get his Super License: "It would have been useful a few years ago!"

Remind Red Bull, Helmut Marko and company: Colton Herta could now drive in Formula 1 without being worried by the FIA! The American won the final round of theIndyCar, on the Nashville oval. Thanks to his victory, the Andretti driver stole second place in the championship from under Will Power's nose and therefore finished as 2024 vice-champion of the discipline. A result which also allows him to win 30 additional points on his Super Licence... and therefore, to (almost) reach the 40 points necessary to obtain it and be eligible for Formula 1.

Technically, this would still not be entirely sufficient: according to the method of points and calculation for the Super Licence, Colton Herta would see his total increase to… 39 points out of the 40 required, based on his three best seasons of the last four calendar years (30 points for 2nd place in 2024, 1 point for 10th place in 2023, 8 points for 5th place in 2021). However, he would only need to take part in a Free Practice session and cover 100 kilometres during it to obtain this last point: a formality!

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Obviously, all this remains hypothetical and above all subject to the FIA, but the journalists did not fail to point this out to him at the press conference. The Californian preferred to respond with humor, while again criticizing the Super License points system. “It would have been helpful a few years ago! It’s nice to have one, I guess. I think the undervaluation of IndyCar is disrespectful but these are things we know about and have talked about over the last three years.”

Can Herta still believe in F1?

In 2022, Colton Herta had been the center of attention in Formula 1: to replace a Pierre Gasly on the way out, in a turbulent transfer market, notably with the affair Piastres between Alpine et McLaren, Helmut Marko and Alpha Tauri (now Racing Bulls) had thought of putting the American behind the wheel of one of their car. At the time, the IndyCar driver, then aged 22, had only 32 points on his Super Licence, therefore not enough to secure his place in the championship. The Red Bull clan had finally decided on Nyck de Vries, while the Californian has since continued the adventure with Andretti in IndyCar.

While Formula 1 may now seem a long way off for the IndyCar runner-up, hope is not yet completely lost. If, by some miracle, Andretti finally manages to make it to the sport in the coming years, Colton Herta would certainly be at the top of the list to occupy a seat.

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