Colton Herta handed F1 weekend debut with Cadillac

Colton Herta is to make his F1 weekend debut driving for Cadillac in the upcoming Barcelona-Catalunya FP1 session.

The American driver switched across from IndyCar to FIA F2 for 2026 in the hopes of earning enough superlicence points to be allowed to compete in F1, and signed a test driver deal with the new Cadillac squad.

The California native is to take part in a total of four FP1 sessions through the year, the required number of times regular drivers Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez must step out of the MAC-26 for, with the remaining three outings to be confirmed at a later date.

Although Herta has driven F1 machinery before, during TPC testing with McLaren, he has never taken part in an official race weekend before.

During his FIA F2 debut in Australia, Herta finished a strong seventh in the feature race, but he will not be able to compete in the Indy 500 in May after a calendar clash with the rescheduled calendar.

FIA F2 will now race in support of the Canadian GP on the weekend of May 22-24th, a clash with the Indy 500, which was not previously a concern on the original calendar, which was forced into a change after the cancellation of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. 

"I can’t wait to get behind the wheel of the Cadillac Formula 1 Team car for the first time," said Herta.

"I am looking forward to working closely with the team in a full grand prix environment and am fully focused on learning from every appearance. 

"I hope I can contribute to the overall race weekend and help the team, Checo and Valtteri as much as possible."