Colton Herta’s IndyCar team mate Marcus Ericsson says the 24-year-old is undoubtedly quick enough to compete in Formula 1.
Ericsson, who spent five years in F1 alongside team mates such as Charles Leclerc, joined Herta at Andretti’s IndyCar team last year. He described Herta as a “raw talent” and “one of the best I’ve been up against.”“I think he even sometimes doesn’t know himself how he can be so fast in certain corner combinations,” Ericsson told Speed Street. “He’s just got that feel for things.
“Also something I feel like with Colton, he’s very good at adapting to different situations. Like, the track changes, it’s different conditions, track grip goes up or down, he’s very good at adapting to different situations and I think that makes him really, really good.
“When he gets into his zone, he can just do things with a race car that very few people can do. So he’s definitely up there as one of the best team mates I’ve raced against.”
Herta has been named as a potential target by for promotion to F1 by Cadillac, which is poised to gain a place on the grid next year.
“For sure he’s got the talent for it,” said Ericsson. “I think there’s no doubt about that, he’s got the talent for it.
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“We all know F1 and IndyCar have two very different type of cars to drive with tyres and tracks and everything, but I have no doubt that he could do a really good job there.”
“I don’t really have a concern with it at all,” said Herta. “I’ve kind of been dragged around in this talk for, it feels like, half a decade now. I’ve had the carrot in front of me for a while.
“I’m kind of tired of that being the case, and I just want to drive at this point and focus on IndyCar this year and focus on winning a championship, and if something arises out of that, I’d have to think about it.
“It’s still not a for sure thing. All my friends and family are here in the US and I don’t know anybody where I’m going, so it’s a big decision to make if I have to make that decision.”
Ericsson said he found it difficult to adjust to F1 as he raced for a series of uncompetitive teams and never felt he had a realistic chance of competing for victories.
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“I was there five years, and not once in those five years… I knew I was not going to win,” he said. “I knew I needed, like, 10 cars to crash if I was going to win.”
“All your junior career all you’re thinking was to win,” he added. “That was your mindset every weekend: I need to win, I need to win. And then you get to your ultimate goal and suddenly it’s like, alright, got to get P14 today.”
He moved into IndyCar the year after losing his F1 seat and has won four races since then.
“The first few years you’re so excited to be in F1 so I didn’t really care so much, it was just super-cool,” he said. “But then, after a few years, it’s really tough.
“I want[ed] to win again, I want[ed] to at least feel like I had the chance to do it. It’s one thing to maybe not do it, but at least know in yourself that I can win if I do everything right. That was really hard to not even have that feeling.
“I remember coming to IndyCar, that was one of the coolest things coming to IndyCar to actually know that we can win again, there is a chance to win races again. It’s not going to be easy, but there is a chance.”
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Ericsson said one of his fondest memories from F1 was scoring points in the second round of 2018 having gone two years without finishing in the top 10.
“In my last year, 2018, when I scored points, we had a really bad year the year before, we didn’t score any points – I didn’t score any points for like two years or something. We were really struggling financially in the team and we were really in a bad spot.
“Then in Bahrain there in 2018 I finished ninth, I think it was, and it was a first point for the team in a long time and beat Leclerc, who was my team mate then and scored the first points for Alfa [Sauber’s title sponsor] and that was a big moment for me and felt very much like a win. That was pretty sick.”
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SteveP
7th February 2025, 17:24
At the end of the day a decent car will put you in the top 10, and a decent driver can put the top 10 car in the top 4 or 5, then the excellent drivers, or a decent driver with an excellent car go for a podium place.
F1 step one: get a seat in a decent car,
step 2 use that to convince someone to put you in a better car
T
7th February 2025, 17:57
i’d argue you don’t even need to get into a decent car, just skip straight to step 2
Mr. Saturday did it in a Williams
Audi’s most experienced driver is a former Haas driver
Haas is rebuilding around a former Alpine driver
depending on how this year goes, the rookies at Alpine, Sauber, and maybe Haas may be able to skip straight to step 2
Greg
7th February 2025, 19:10
A former HAAS driver that is also a former Renault driver, and was a ex F1 driver in between
fawkes
7th February 2025, 18:19
I’m tired of reading this about Indy drivers. If they’re quick enough and willing to reach F1 one day, why they didn’t even try to reach it in the first place instead of moaning?
In the case of Herta, at least, it is because he was comprehensively beaten by Norris. Then he basically gave up.
I say it so because the lacking of money and networks are not plausible excuses for Americans. On average they’re simply mediocre. Then they moan. Compare this to Bortoletto and how his family gave literally everything for him to have a chance to compete. Or to Colapinto, and even Palou. Give us a break already…
PS: I do respect and watch Indy. Colton is one of the best yet erratic on the biz. I just don’t buy this kind of excuses.
anon
8th February 2025, 14:30
fawkes, from what I have seen, there doesn’t seem to have been a lot of overlap in the careers of Norris and Herta.
Back in 2015, they competed in the MSA Formula Championship, which is a Formula 4 championship held in the UK. Norris did beat Herta in that championship by 413 points to 355, but 3rd in the championship for Herta was hardly disgraceful – it could also be noted that Norris had the advantage of having raced those circuits the previous year in the Ginetta Junior championship, and a bit of an experience edge with Formula 4 cars given he was also participating in races in the German and Italian Formula 4 championships. There was, after that, a little bit of overlap in the 2016 British Formula 3 championship, but it’s quite hard to run any meaningful comparison when they both only ran a limited number of races (particularly with Norris competing in more races than Herta did).
As an aside, when you say “Compare this to Bortoletto and how his family gave literally everything for him to have a chance to compete.”, it’s not a particularly good argument – Bortoleto actually comes from a very privileged and wealthy background, given Bortoleto’s father was the director, and has since been promoted to CEO, of one of the largest telecoms companies in Brazil.
greasemonkey
8th February 2025, 15:38
They were on the same team (Carlin) at the same time, and were similarly quick. The team boss even said they were comparable.
Colton (and Brian) are not moaning at all. Money, balancing opportunities, and even just fun, are part of it (I’ve casual sparred with Brian a few times at Willow Springs), and chatted off track. In person they are very much the “California Chill” they come off as.
fawkes
8th February 2025, 16:10
Being a CEO is quite different from being the owner, or a quite stablished indy car driver with several connections in the US, the richest country in the world. Besides, folks here in Brazil have to learn another language and move early to Europe to succeed, something tsunoda also mentioned as an important factor for Japanese/Asian drivers.
As for the overlap, ok, it is not the best comparison, but it is something. In the end, the question remains, why not try harder? Why he Colton didn’t step to F2? Again, a famous name, money and connections were not lacking…
anon
8th February 2025, 22:18
fawkes, how do you know that “money and connections were not lacking”, other than based on your assumptions? At no point have you demonstrated that there was any lack of effort or will on his part – it’s all based on what seems to be your opinion that, because he’s from the US, he would have had everything handed to him with barely any effort.
Equally, we could also apply your standards to drivers from European, Asian or Australian backgrounds who have had the appropriate famous name, money and connections and say they should have also all “tried harder” too. Will we see similar complaints from you levied against them as well?
fawkes
9th February 2025, 22:15
I’m being kind assuming that he didn’t tried harder, because the other answer would be that he’s simply not good enough. Yes I’m just guessing, but I think it’s a good guess. While he certainly did not have everything handed it’s safe to say that he started in much better position than most of the kids in kart worldwide. Finally, I do share this opinion for other rich countries, specially for those in racing families.
Jere (@jerejj)
7th February 2025, 18:20
I thought he’d ended up back below 40 super license points, but oh well, he’s still unlikely to accept an offer if he received one, so perhaps Jak Crawford is Cadillac’s best bet for a US driver.
MichaelN
8th February 2025, 16:22
Has he ever been above? He has 32 points at the moment, as he came 2nd in Indycar last year and 10th in the two years before that.
bull mello (@bullmello)
7th February 2025, 21:39
Colton Herta should be in F1!
Marcel
8th February 2025, 9:54
He would be quick enough to be in F1, but I doubt he would be top teir in F1. Lets not forget that Indycar is very close, pace wise, to F2 and if he is the extreme talent they say he is, why hasn’t he been more succesfull in indycar than is is up to this point? He has been in a top team for some years now.
Also the past has shown that top teir F1 drivers are very capable of winning the indy title, vice versa has never been succesfull. No doubt that any of the real top F1 drivers, like Verstappen, Leclerc, Hamilton, Alonso would win the Indy title with ease.
Don
8th February 2025, 14:34
Of course Herta is quick enough, as are numerous IndyCar drivers. The bottom line is that the Super License format is a joke, biased against them to keep them out, and American drivers go through the American ladder system and are at a disadvantage to get in.
Tomas Temichele
8th February 2025, 15:58
if cotton herta is usa best driver for F1 who never won anything and i mean anything not even formula retired then usa drivers still suck @ss just like it always have been
fawkes
8th February 2025, 16:18
It makes me think of Sargeant, he at least reached F2 and F1 lol
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
8th February 2025, 17:07
It’s interesting how some countries don’t make good drivers, italy didn’t have a proper driver since ascari 70 years ago! In that sense it’s really interesting to see if antonelli can be the 2nd best italian driver ever.
Marcel
8th February 2025, 22:00
Since 2000 only 5 nationaliteis have won the F1 WDCC. In total only 15 nationalities… both Italy and the USA have (and had) excellent drivers amongst all kinds of categories. According your logic nearly all countries dont have good drivers, which is total nonsense.
anon
8th February 2025, 22:24
Marcel, he’s mocking the nationalistic biases of those earlier posters by pointing out that they wouldn’t apply those qualities to drivers from European nations, even when their comments are equally applicable to them, and pointing out the absurdities inherent in that when you take those sorts of arguments to an extreme.
greasemonkey
8th February 2025, 23:36
Racing is just about the poorest filtering sport to find “the best”. The best potential drivers in the world are growing rice in the Far East, mining cobalt in Africa, or veiled behind a scarf in Iran.
Most sports only partially pull from the pool, but racing’s pool is so narrow that it is absurd to talk about any kind of inherent correlation to demographic.
fawkes
10th February 2025, 2:12
You’re right, this is what I’ve been trying to say in my comments mocking Herta/americans.
However, I don’t see any major reason for not comparing the success among rich countries. Of course one should not draw racist conclusions about this. For instance, culture seems to play a big role, as Americans are happy with their motorsports quite unique motorsport environment (oval racing, dragsters, etc); the same goes for the huge amount of Japanese talents focused on drifting.