IndyCar race winner Colton Herta will move to Formula 2 for the 2026 season, Cadillac F1 CEO Dan Towriss confirmed Wednesday, with the believed aim of securing the FIA Super Licence points required to become a Cadillac F1 driver in 2027. Feeder Series breaks down one of the most unusual yet momentous driver transfers in junior series in recent memory.

By Martin Lloyd, Calla Kra-Caskey and Tori Turner

Traditionally, drivers move to F2 from F3 or occasionally from further down the pyramid, but no driver has joined the series full-time from IndyCar, the top flight of American open-wheel racing, since 2019.

Herta’s impending move is one of the most significant in the history of the championship, which serves as the primary feeder category to F1. The 25-year-old, a nine-time IndyCar winner and the series’ 2024 runner-up, would be pursuing a top-eight finish in F2 to secure the FIA Super Licence points needed to drive in F1 for the new Andretti-affiliated Cadillac operation in 2027.

The news of Herta’s F2 switch was confirmed by Towriss – the CEO of Cadillac owner TWG Global – on the 3 September episode of the Off Track with Hinch and Rossi podcast, hosted by IndyCar on Fox analyst James Hinchcliffe and Ed Carpenter Racing driver Alexander Rossi, both of whom formerly raced for the Andretti Autosport IndyCar team.

Towriss did not identify the F2 team for which California native Herta, who has driven for Andretti for the majority of his American open-wheel career, will race in 2026. There have been no announcements about the matter from F2 or any of its teams.

Separate press releases earlier on Wednesday announcing Herta’s appointment as a Cadillac test driver in F1 and Will Power’s signing to replace him in the #26 Andretti IndyCar machine also alluded to Herta’s move to Europe without specifically mentioning F2. Herta will not return to IndyCar next season, the series confirmed.

Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez both signed with the Cadillac F1 team last week, potentially blocking Herta’s path, but his placement in F2 makes the team’s ambitions clear. The initial press release from Cadillac announcing the team’s 2026 line-up did not state contract lengths, though Towriss clarified in a subsequent press conference that both drivers were on multi-year deals. Herta could be promoted if the team breaks a contract or if one of the deals includes a team option for 2027.

Herta is understood to be moving to F2 to secure the FIA Super Licence required to race in F1 for new team Cadillac, whose entry was previously known as Andretti. Yet plans for Herta to compete in the pinnacle of motorsport have been underway for years, ever since longtime Andretti Autosport team owner Michael Andretti, a former F1 driver himself, built his F1 ambitions around having an American driver in one of his seats.

Herta was first rumoured to be in line for an F1 seat with Sauber for 2022, when Andretti was attempting to purchase the Swiss team, but the deal never materialised and Herta remained in IndyCar. 

He then became a McLaren development driver in 2022, with both Red Bull and Alpine interested in signing him for the 2023 season. However, Herta only had 32 Super Licence points at the time, with 40 required to earn a Super Licence and therefore be permitted to drive in F1. 

Red Bull applied for a Super Licence exemption for Herta under what was then article 5.1.6 of Appendix L of the International Sporting Code, which permits drivers to receive a Super Licence if they have a minimum of 30 Super Licence points but cannot reach 40 because of ‘circumstances outside their control or reasons of force majeure’. The application was rejected in September 2022.

It seemed at the time that Herta’s F1 ambitions may have been extinguished, but with a fully Andretti-backed entry on the grid, he is set to take the unusual step of competing in F2 to gain the required Super Licence points instead. 

The FIA grants 40 points – the number of Super Licence points required to drive in F1 – to the IndyCar champion, with second, third and fourth places taking 30, 20 and 10 points respectively and the remainder of the top 10 picking up single-digit numbers.

Points accrued are valid for three seasons, with Herta’s disappointing campaigns either side of his second-place finish in 2024 counting against him. He finished 10th in 2023, taking one point, and seventh this season, picking up four points, meaning he currently has 35 points. He will lose his point from 2023 at the end of the next year, bringing him down to 34.

Therefore, to guarantee receiving a Super Licence through his F2 campaign, he will need to finish at least eighth in the drivers’ standings, which would earn him the six points required for a tally of 40.

He could potentially finish as low as 10th in the standings, which grants three points, and still take a Super Licence if he drives in F1 free practice sessions. Each practice session appearance will earn Herta one point provided that he completes 100 kilometres of running. Herta is permitted to drive in a maximum of ten sessions, while Cadillac are required to run a rookie in at least two sessions per car during the 24-round 2026 season.

The move will raise questions as to whether the Super Licence system is fit for purpose. Herta last competed in a junior single-seater championship seven years ago, when he finished second to Pato O’Ward in the Indy Lights championship, now known as Indy NXT. Since his promotion to the top tier of American single-seaters with Andretti, Herta has taken nine IndyCar wins, 20 podiums and 16 pole positions, regularly beating out former F1 drivers such as Marcus Ericsson and Romain Grosjean in the same team. 

Who is Colton Herta?

The son of former CART and IndyCar driver and current Andretti IndyCar strategist Bryan Herta, Colton Herta has proven his talent in one of only three professional single-seater categories outside of F1. 

Unlike current ART Grand Prix driver Ritomo Miyata, who moved from Japan’s Super Formula championship to F2 ahead of the 2024 season, Herta has prior experience in European single-seaters. After contesting several campaigns in entry-level series stateside, he finished third in the MSA Formula Championship, now British F4, for Carlin in 2015, behind then-teammate and current F1 driver Lando Norris. The following year, he finished third in Euroformula Open, once again for Carlin. 

In 2017, Herta moved back to America to compete in IndyCar support series Indy Lights for Andretti Autosport. He finished his rookie season third and his sophomore season second overall behind Pato O’Ward.

He then moved up to IndyCar in 2019 with Harding Steinbrenner Racing, who had a technical alliance with Andretti Autosport. After a stellar seventh-place finish in a rookie season highlighted by two victories – the first of which, at the Circuit of The Americas, made him IndyCar’s youngest winner at 18 years, 11 months and 25 days – he continued with Harding for 2020 but now with full Andretti backing, ultimately finishing the season in third.

He moved to the main team after that, but third remained his best championship result until 2024, when he was the runner-up to Álex Palou. Despite securing a victory in the season finale in Nashville, he was unable to close the gap to Palou, who won his third title by 31 points.

Herta was unable to maintain the momentum he found from last year. He finished the 2025 championship, which concluded Sunday, seventh with 372 points. He failed to add to his tally of nine victories this year but secured two pole positions in Detroit and Toronto, both street circuits.

He is the first driver to move from full-time IndyCar competition to a full F2 campaign since Jordan King in 2019. The Briton moved from Ed Carpenter Racing, with whom he had finished 22nd in 2018, to MP for what was his fourth and final season in F1’s premier support category.

King made a one-off return to IndyCar to compete in the 2019 Indianapolis 500 with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, meaning he missed the Monaco round of the F2 season. The Monaco Grand Prix and Indianapolis 500 will be held on different weekends this year, but whether Herta will enter IndyCar’s most prestigious race in 2026 has not yet been confirmed. 

Header photo credit: Joe Skibinski / Penske Entertainment