On 24 March 2019, Colton Herta became the youngest ever IndyCar race winner at the Circuit of the Americas, taking the small Harding Steinbrenner Racing team to victory, aged just 18 years and 359 days old.
It was the start of a successful IndyCar career with Andretti, even if the title or Indianapolis 500 victory eluded the second-generation driver.
But when a late chance to pursue his Formula 1 dream came calling, Herta parked a comfortable IndyCar seat for a journey into the unknown with Cadillac - dovetailing practice sessions and private tests with the purgatory of Formula 2 to accrue enough European experience and superlicence points.
The latter part hasn't exactly gone to plan: Herta is languishing 19th with only 26 points. His last points haul with Hitech dates back to the Belgian round before the summer break.
The season, which is still expected to conclude with rounds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi depending on events in the Middle East, left the Californian with "a few more questions than answers".
"I'm just disappointed with how the year's gone. It's not been good at all," said the 26-year-old.
Colton Herta, Hitech
Photo by: Getty Images
It left Herta and Cadillac scrambling for a few more superlicence points via FP1 sessions, the latest taking place at COTA and serendipitously handing Herta a full circle moment as he was able to drive an F1 car around the site of his breakthrough IndyCar win.
Suggesting Friday's FP1 was Herta's season highlight is not much of a stretch. So, with his F2 frustration parked to one side and his doubts over the future to another, he savoured the opportunity.
"It was very enjoyable," said Herta. "It felt super special to be able to do it here at home, in front of the home crowd, with the Cadillac. It's been a while since I've been here, seven years since IndyCar was here last, but it hasn't changed much, and it was nice to see progress.”
Reminiscing about 2019, he said: "This is where it all started, basically. It was my third start in IndyCar, and I started third, undercut people, got a little bit lucky with the yellows. And then I ended up first at the restart, like 10 laps to go, and led from there. It was a fun time. It was a little team that could, Harding Steinbrenner, and we got two wins out of it."
While COTA may not have changed much over the years, the Cadillac Herta drove on Friday bore little resemblance to the dated DW12. When asked how long it took to rewire his brain, Herta said: "In IndyCar we use feet for brake markers, too, so it's a little bit different in that aspect, and you're arriving at quite different speeds, to be honest.
"But generally, the lines are very similar. How you approach the track and attack it is very similar, but the car feels different. I think driving-wise, at least in the low-speed [sections], it's pretty close to what you need to do and how you need to maximise it. There are some similarities there that kind of help the process of learning."
Colton Herta, Austin 2019
Photo by: Getty Images
Herta was somewhat of a test mule as he completed 21 laps aboard the MAC-26 to take 21st, 3.9s seconds off the lead, tasked with conducting aerodynamic experiments which should help the team with its development direction for 2027. "Whatever they tell me to do, I do it," he said. "We did some aero runs that ate up half of the session, and then from there I did one short run and then one long run.
"Whenever you're in the car, it always feels like it goes way too fast, and everything's over too quick, but everything went to plan. All our timings on everything were correct, so we got through the run planned like we wanted to, so I was happy."
The session left Herta on the cusp of an FIA superlicence. He has been left jaded by the seemingly endless pursuit of that piece of paper required for an F1 debut, a topic which arose as early as 2022 when Red Bull-run AlphaTauri showed interest in handing him a seat. But he is hopeful one more practice outing later this year will finally get him to the 40-point threshold.
"To be honest, I don't know where I'm at, but I believe so,” he said. “It's been so many years of thinking about it and worrying about it that I let other people do it for me."
Herta's F2 struggles are ultimately not expected to be the key factor deciding his F1 fate. And as team principal Marcin Budkowksi did little to dispel doubts over Valtteri Bottas' position in the seat alongside Sergio Perez, Herta is still determined to see his F1 mission through to the end.
"My goal is still to be in Formula 1 as soon as possible with Cadillac, with GM, with TWG and this is where I want to be. I'm focused on trying to get here as soon as possible," Herta was adamant, while also not ruling out an F2 return if Cadillac decides to retain Bottas for another year or settle for a left-field option.
Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac Racing, Sergio Perez, Cadillac Racing
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Formula 1 via Getty Images
A year on the sidelines, purely as a reserve driver, is not particularly appealing. "One hundred percent, I want to have some sort of programme where I can get in a race car a few times a year at the very least," Herta said.
"For me, I'm at such an important time in my career where I'm starting to get into those prime years. We all know you can't race professionally forever, even though Fernando [Alonso, 45] is putting up a good argument for it.
"These years are crucial to me, and I don't want to spend a year not doing something. So, I want to race in something, whether that looks like a partial or full-time deal or whatever it is. I want to be in something cool that races somewhere in the world. I'm hoping that I can figure out my programme soon."
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