Colton Herta takes ‘now or never’ F1 stance after super licence confusion

Colton Herta believes his chance to make it to F1 is in a "now or never" situation as he edges closer to finally obtaining his super licence.

There was some confusion on Friday of the Mexico City Grand Prix weekend as it initially appeared that Herta had earned the required 40th point for the licence after completing his 24th lap of FP1 as he deputised for Valtteri Bottas.

However, it emerged that Cadillac's own internal maths was wrong after an error on the IndyCar website had Herta down as sixth place in the 2025 standings, earning him two super licence points than the seventh place in the standings he had actually earned.

It all means that instead of having 40 points, Herta remains on 39, and is expected to get another practice outing in Brazil next time out to finally qualify for a potential F1 race seat, if Bottas is dropped.

The race for the second Cadillac seat is heating up, with Fred Vesti declaring an interest after a strong FP1 for Mercedes, but Herta, who is Cadillac's own internal driver, believes his long-held dream of making it to F1 is finally facing a reckoning. 

"To be honest, I haven't paid too much attention. I was literally walking to go do the media stuff, and that was the first time I had heard about it," Herta told media, including RacingNews365, of the super licence confusion.

"Obviously, we were still doing our meetings and whatnot, so I didn't talk to anybody about it, and as far as I was concerned, going into the weekend, if I did 100km here, I would have 40 [points], so I'm not sure what's changed or why stuff has changed or if it even has, so I think I have to wait and see."

Turning to whether this was his last chance to make it as a full-time grand prix racer, Herta declared that it was.

"I think so, and as far as it being like now or never, I don't think I can go back to IndyCar and then have another chance in Formula 1," he said.

"Whether that means next year or the following year, I really don't know what the plan is at the moment, so I think we'll have to wait and see. I think some decisions hopefully will be made within the next month. 

"For me, I think it would be great the sooner the better to know. Going into November, you want to know what you're doing next year. So for me, that's kind of like the main thing is just to know what I'm doing next year."

The Californian then added that he hoped Cadillac giving him the FP1 outings was heading towards his desired outcome.

"I hope so," he said when asked if he was a realistic candidate for the seat.

"Or else, I don't know why I'd be doing this. I think Cadillac have shown a lot of faith in me doing these FP1s - they've put a lot of resources behind me to get me ready to be in the Formula 1 seat.

"I hope that's reciprocated and I can make it, but right now, it's all guesses."

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'Super licence monkey off my back'

Expanding further, Herta declared that he is "1,000% ready" to step into a race seat in F1 in 2027, if chosen. 

"I think every time I get in the car, I feel more comfortable and I'm able to push a bit more," he said.

"I think once I get that super licence monkey off my back, then I can really kind of push everything as hard as I want.

"I back myself 100% on everything. I think I can be as quick as anybody. I think, and I think I have the capability of learning very quickly too, and picking up on things. So, 1,000%, I back myself in being able to do this."