Guenther Steiner makes blunt Colton Herta-Cadillac admission with reality check for F1

Former Haas F1 boss Guenther Steiner has highlighted that F1 won't witness a popularity boom in America just because Cadillac F1 has signed an American driver in Colton Herta. The 60-year-old used the example of Logan Sargeant's F1 failure to make his point.

In his 1.5-year tenure with Williams, Sargeant scored only one point for the team and cost over $4 million in crash damages. This neither helped the American driver's case of staying in F1, nor did it further the pinnacle of motorsport's aspiration of growing its fanbase in America.

However, the case of Cadillac signing Colton Herta as a test driver for 2026 is different, with both being known American entities, especially the latter, who is a proven performer in IndyCar. Despite this, Guenther Steiner believes that without a show of success from them, F1's American dream isn't headed anywhere.

"He (Herta) needs to be successful. It's not an automatic thing, just having an American driver, because we had Logan Sargeant in Formula 1. Obviously, having Cadillac will help as well, a big American brand, but it needs to come with success, and then it will work," Steiner told Autosport.

"Formula 1 in general is a global sport. The nationality counts very little. But if you have an American winner that wins a championship, you would have all America behind it. It's pretty clear," the former Haas boss added.

Steiner left F1 as a team boss after Haas let him go at the end of the 2024 season, with the team's progress showing no promising signs. The Italian-American spent a good chunk of the 2025 season as a media person in the paddock before finding a new home in MotoGP. He will take over as CEO of the Red Bull KTM Tech3 team after leading a consortium that bought the team for 20 million Euros (~ $23 million).

Cadillac F1 boss emphasizes Colton Herta needs to earn F1 seat

Dan Towriss with Graeme Lowdon at the F1 Italian Grand Prix 2025 Practice 2 - Source: Getty

Colton Herta was the star driver of Andretti Global in IndyCar and also the highest-paid driver in the premier American open-wheel racing series. His move to Cadillac F1, which falls under the same umbrella of TWG Motorsports as Andretti Global, is an 'all or nothing' attempt at realizing his childhood F1 dream.

TWG Motorsports CEO Dan Towriss paved the road for Herta to get a step closer to that F1 dream by signing him as a test driver for Cadillac F1. The 25-year-old still needs to earn six points to get an FIA super licence, for which he will race in Formula 2 in 2026 as well.

While Colton Herta's jump from the top of IndyCar to F2 seems absurd and is unorthodox, Towriss mentioned that this is their way of giving 'respect' to European racing. Moreover, it will also help Herta, IndyCar's youngest race winner, to earn an F1 seat.

"This is Formula 1, he needs to show that he's ready to race on this big stage from that standpoint," Towriss told RACER. "And I think it's both what he's learning and then showing and creating confidence into the team and management that he's ready to go."

Cadillac F1 has signed Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez as its full-time drivers on a multi-year deal from 2026 onwards. Colton Herta has already been lined up as a potential successor to one of them come 2027 or later.