Or will His Formula 1 aspirations fizzle?
Still have to commend Colton Herta for making
the bold decision to leave IndyCar to chase His dream of racing in Formula 1.
Yet that said, this year hasn’t exactly gone to
plan for Herta. Beginning with the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi
Arabian Formula 1 races, where Formula 2 was part of the weekend. We all know
how the calendar revisions to race at Miami
and Montreal impacted Colton’s plans of running Andretti Global’s fourth
Indianapolis 500 entry.
Reportedly, Herta currently has 34 points from
His IndyCar Vice Champion (second place) finish in 2024 and seventh place
finish in 2025. Putting Him just six points shy of the 40 points threshold required
for the mandatory FIA Super Licence to race in Formula 1.
Thus Colton needs to finish eighth or better
this year in Formula 2 to collect His Super Licence. Although think I heard
Colton can amass one extra point for each F1 Free Practice session He contests?
Points are awarded to the top eight finishers
in sprint races. And top ten in feature races, a la F1 scoring format.
Two extra points are awarded for feature race
pole position. And a bonus point is awarded for fastest lap in each race,
provided it’s set by a driver finishing in the top ten. Otherwise awarded to
the fastest driver inside top ten places.
Sprint points: 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1.
Feature races: 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1.
In the seven rounds (14 races) prior to the
Mighty spa weekend. (Spa-Francorchamps) Colton had scored five top ten
finishes, and one top five finish. Finishing seventh, (Australia) eighth
(Miami) and seventh (Montreal) in feature races. Plus ninth (Montreal( and
fifth (Barcelona) sprint races for a total of 20 points, classified P17. While
Norway’s Martinius Stenshorne was eighth with 48 points.
His best weekend was Montreal, where He
finished ninth and seventh, albeit one position out of the points in the sprint
race.
Following Spa-Francorchamps, with P13 in the
Sprint race, and seventh in the Feature race. Moving up one position to 16th
overall with 26 points.
Herta finished P14 during Saturday’s Hunga-boring’
Sprint race; one place behind Hitech teammate Ritomo Miyata, 25.7 seconds
behind winner Gabriele Mini in what was anything but a boring race.
Sunday’s Hungaroring feature race saw Colton
finish a disastrous P19 out of a 22-car field. Nearly one minute adrift of
maiden race winner Noel Leon.
As Herta trails current eighth place Laurens
van Hoepen (65 points) by 39 markers, still languishing in P16. (26 points)
With Hitech teammate Ritomo Miyata P13. (34 points)
Following the summer break, (July 27-Sept 4)
five rounds remain. Monza, the brand new Madrid circuit, Azerbaijan’s Baku
street circuit and the final two rounds at Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
Yet will the stupendous attacking of Iran and
the ensuing war impact these final two events for all concerned, including Formula
1? Which with the constant escalation of attacking Iran, these races, and
racing in the Middle East in general now seem quite threatened.
Meanwhile, even if Colton achieves His
objective and secures a FIA Super Licence, where would He race? Since I’ve
already speculated that current Cadillac F1 drivers Valtteri Bottas and Sergio
Perez surely have multi-year contracts?
Yet a somewhat larger obstacle is Colton’s age.
Having turned 26 this March 30th. As I cannot think of recently hearing ‘lil
Stevie Johnson, aka Stefan Johansson telling Paul Tracy a story about
Felix-the-Cat’, who Johansson manages.
Saying He’d rung up Helmut Marco to try getting
Felix Rosenqvista test for Formula 1 and Marco said forget it, He’s too old!
FIA F2 points leader Nikola
Tsolov is 19yrs old. Campos teammate Noel Leon 21yrs
old. Whilst Invicta Racing’s Rafael Chaves Camara is 21yrs old, with teammate Joshua
Durksen being 22yrs old.
DAMS Lucas Oil’s Dino Beganovic, a Ferrari
Academy driver is 22yrs old and in His second full F2 season. ART Grand Prix driver Kush Maini turns 26 in
September. But with 91 starts, 3 wins, 2 poles and 8 podiums in four seasons, I
highly doubt will progress to F1. Even if Maini is having His best season to
date so far; currently sixth overall when scribbling this. One position ahead
of Beganovic.
And lastly is Trident’s John Bennett, age 22.
In His sophomore campaign, having won His maiden F2 race in Austria’s Sprint
race. Being the first driver to step up to Formula 2 directly from the GB3
championship.
As the following drivers above have won the
majority if not all F2 races preceding Hungary.
Then again, Bottas and Perez are both in their
mid-thirties, so who knows, Eh?
Especially since Herta’s now completed two
Friday (Free Practice) FP1 sessions in Barcelona, replacing Perez. Then at
Hungary replacing Bottas, with speculation suggesting Colton’s in-line to
replace Bottas next year. Although Valtteri says its complete Balderdash!
As for scoring extra FIA super Licence points
when driving in Friday practice sessions. Reportedly a driver can earn up to 10
points over any three year period, gaining one point per session, provided said
driver completes a minimum of 100km in that session.
So, will we see Cadillac insert Colton an
additional six times during Friday practice and running long to obtain the
necessary points? Which increasingly, seems His only pathway left.
Whilst could Cadillac be so bold to go for an
all new lineup in the future with Herta and Guanyu Zhou, we’ll “See”.
Good luck Colton!
