Cadillac confirm Colton Herta to race in F2 to pursue 'F1 dream'

Colton Herta is to take "a big risk" with his motorsport career by quitting IndyCar to race in F2 next season in his bid to compete in F1.

Earlier on Wednesday, Cadillac, F1's newest team, which recently signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as its driver line-up for its debut campaign in 2026, announced Herta would be its test and development driver.

Now, Dan Towriss, the CEO of TWG Motorsports, which is running the Cadillac F1 team, has revealed Herta will leave IndyCar and make the bold move to F2 next year. At this stage, it is not known with which team.

The switch is designed to aid Herta's bid to acquire enough points for a Super Licence, which is required to race in F1.

It will also allow Herta to get up to speed with a significant number of circuits on the F1 calendar, and also to understand the finer workings of Pirelli's tyres.

"We've been fortunate to keep Colton at Andretti in the IndyCar team," said Towriss, speaking on the F2 Off-Track podcast on nine-time IndyCar race winner Herta.

"Now, he's going to pursue his dream in Formula 1, and to do that, he's going to take a pretty big risk. He's leaving IndyCar.

"He's not going directly to Formula 1. There is a test and development driver role, and he's going to F2.

"He's going to learn tracks, he's going to learn tyres. Tyres are a big part of that. Very different from IndyCar, from that standpoint.

"So I couldn't be more proud of Colton, to be willing to take that risk, to pursue his dream."

Kimi Raikkonen put in the shade

Towriss has revealed there have been various steps along the way with Herta that have led to this point, and that it is not a decision made on a whim.

Four years ago, when Towriss was supporting Michael Andretti's bid to purchase the Sauber F1 team, Herta was seen then as a driver who could make the leap across from IndyCar to F1.

Unfortunately for Towriss, Andretti and Herta, the deal "fell through at the last minute", but it was not before the 25-year-old American had delivered an eye-catching performance in comparison to the drivers then with Sauber, in its Alfa Romeo guise, 2007 champion Kimi Raikkonen, and Antonio Giovinazzi.

Referencing Andretti's bid to buy Sauber, it "really started Colton on this journey, where he really started to show a lot of promise in Formula 1," said Towriss.

He added: "He went over to Switzerland, got on the simulator, and within an hour, was faster than the two Formula 1 drivers with the team at that time.

"That led to some other things to show some real excitement along the way, and so he's built up an actual body of work that not everybody knows about in Formula 1, in terms of some of the tests that he's done, even to drawing interest from Red Bull later on from there."