Colton Herta's dad shares emotional message after the IndyCar star's life-changing move to Cadillac F1

Colton Herta's dad, Bryan Herta, revealed that he feels lucky to have worked alongside his son in the IndyCar sphere ahead of his move to the F1 ladder. The 25-year-old will join the FIA F2 championship next year to have his best shot at materialising his golden chance to move to F1, ending his tenure within the American open-wheel racing series ladder.

Herta and Red Bull were in talks for an F1 seat in 2023 at their sister outfit, Alphatauri (now Racing Bulls), but this deal failed to fall through as he didn't have enough superlicense points. This issue has haunted the Santa Clarita-born driver for years, but with Cadillac joining F1, a gate seemingly opened for him to finally live his dream of joining the elusive grid.

So, with his son parting ways with the Andretti squad, his dad, who is a part of the team that his son drove for, revealed the close bond that he had formed with Colton during their time at Andretti, and said on the Racers Unchained podcast:

"I feel so lucky getting to have worked with Colton in IndyCar even when I wasn't on his radio, right? We're all in the same engineering trailer. I got to spend so much time with him these last few years that dads will get that right, like your adult children, you don't get that time with them anymore. But because we work together, I was with him a lot, and a lot of times he'd be like, "Hey, you know, dad, do you want to go grab us some dinner and stuff?" And I cherish all that time with him." (48:05 onwards)

"I have an adult daughter... I don't have that kind of a thing with her where I been able to spend as much time. And I'm lucky, but I'm also proud and looking forward to kind of just cheering for him, being, just being a parent there, race dad, and watching what he does with this opportunity."

The F2 championship that Colton Herta will move to in 2026 rewards drivers with greater super license points than similar positions in the IndyCar standings.

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What does Colton Herta need to do in F2 to achieve his FIA Super License?

Andretti's Colton Herta at the 2025 NTT INDYCAR Series Snap-On Milwaukee Mile 250 - Source: Getty

Colton Herta is a test and development driver for Cadillac in F1, and would utilise his rookie year in F2 to familiarise himself with the tracks on the F1 calendar. However, this won't be enough to land him a seat at Cadillac in the near future.

He currently has 32 points on his super license, and a single point is set to expire next year. So, he would have to finish sixth or higher in the F2 standings to guarantee himself a super license.

But, if in case he cannot secure a high enough spot, he will have the 2027 F2 year as a possible backup to gain those points, as his 30 super license points for finishing second in IndyCar in 2024 would be valid until the 2027 season.

This would give Colton Herta seemingly enough shots at the super license to get it in his bag and ready up for a possible drive with Cadillac when either Valtteri Bottas or Sergio Perez leaves the team.