Valtteri Bottas has addressed Colton Herta finally securing his FIA Super Licence, a milestone the American reached during opening practice at the São Paulo Grand Prix, with his Cadillac seat under threat from the development.
Herta needed to accumulate 40 Super Licence points over a rolling three-year period to be eligible to race in Formula 1, and Cadillac went to considerable lengths to get him there.
The 26-year-old was entered in Formula 2 with Hitech this year and also ran across six separate FP1 sessions, all in pursuit of the points he was missing.
It has not been straightforward. In addition to an underwhelming campaign in F2 that will not contribute to his tally, an error on IndyCar's official website complicated the process, listing Herta sixth rather than seventh in the 2025 standings.
That miscalculation led Cadillac and Herta to believe he had already reached 40 points at the Mexico City Grand Prix, only for the corrected classification to leave him one short.
And a hydraulic issue that limited him to five laps during Monza practice earlier in the season, short of the 100-kilometre minimum needed to bank a point.
But Herta eventually got over the line in FP1 in Brazil, completing more than 100 clean kilometres in Sergio Perez's MAC-26.
Bottas, on the other hand, has struggled to match the Mexican's pace this year with numerous unconvincing performances and a spate of bad luck, including his scary suspension failure in Mexico City and his DNS due to a cross-threaded wheel nut at Interlagos.
Asked how he felt about the situation given the effort invested in getting Herta over the line, the Finnish driver told media, including RacingNews365: "Normally, nothing should change for the future.
"But there's obviously been good effort on giving him the super licence."
Bottas highlighted how there is an element of urgency in getting Herta over the line, as 30 of his super licence points came in 2024, when he finished second in the IndyCar championship.
"I can understand it; it's now or never for him to get the licence," the 10-time grand prix winner added. "But for the future, I don't know."
Also interesting:
Join RacingNews365's Ian Parkes, Samuel Coop and Nick Golding as they look back on the São Paulo Grand Prix in Brazil! Max Verstappen’s simply staggering recovery from 21st on the grid is a key talking point, as is Ferrari’s current power unit struggles.
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