CEO of the Cadillac F1 team, Dan Towriss, has spoken about the team’s new test driver, Colton Herta, highlighting the huge risk he has chosen to take by moving from IndyCar to Formula Two next year.
Herta’s long-time dream has been to race in the premier class of motorsports, but the lack of enough points on his super license prevented him from making the big jump. Now, Herta will join F2 next year and use the series as a stepping stone to enter F1. However, there is no guarantee he will secure an F1 seat in the future.
The American IndyCar driver has an impressive racing CV to boast about, consisting of 19 podium finishes and 16 pole positions in his 116-race IndyCar career thus far. Towriss acknowledged the risk taken by Herta in signing with Cadillac F1. He told Sky Sports F1, as quoted by F1.com:
“For Colton, this has always been a dream of his, to drive in F1, but to do that, this is the path he had to take. He has to take a huge risk, a huge amount of risk – no seat is guaranteed. This is F1, so he wants to learn tracks and tyres and show that respect to European open-wheel racing.
“The entitlement model from the US hasn’t worked out that well in the past, so we really want to build that body of work, the knowledge that’s necessary, to see if he has what it takes to drive in Formula 1.”
Despite the lack of a championship victory for Herta, Towriss noted the impressive results he showed during his F1 tests with other F1 teams in the past. Towriss added:
“He really is a special talent. I think a lot of people look at some of the results in IndyCar and say, ‘Well, he hasn’t won a championship, he’s not with [multiple champion] Alex Palou’.
“I think as a team owner I would take some responsibility for that; there have been times where there have been troubles on pit lane or strategy didn’t work out, but Colton’s an immense talent and he really can find speed where others can’t.
“I think any time he’s had a chance to do a test, whether it was with McLaren, or time that he’s been in the sim with Alpine, Red Bull and Sauber, from that standpoint he really has excelled and shown really high potential and promise for an F1 seat.
“Now this is the chance to do it. He’s had to choose this path of taking a big risk to not have that guarantee of the seat. He’s leaving behind what at this point is very comfortable for him, to choose something that’s uncomfortable for him – but no risk, no reward, as they say.”
Read the full article here
