“The time is right for me if I get an opportunity”: American racing starlet Colton Herta talks about a potential Formula 1 move in the future

Colton Herta admits that he’s enjoying driving in the IndyCar Series, but will not rule out a future move to Formula 1. 

Herta is driving for Andretti Autosport in IndyCar and has caught the American racing series by storm. The 21-year old is entering his fourth season in the sport, and has already won 6 races in his career. At the 2019 IndyCar Classic, he became the youngest person ever win an IndyCar series race at just 18-years old.

The young American driver was linked to an F1 move ahead of the 2022 season when there were talks of Michael Andretti (owner of his team in IndyCar) completing a takeover of the Alfa Romeo F1 team. However, the deal did not fall through.

YES YES YES! Win at home in Long Beach! Thank you to my team for everything, and an amazing cap on this year! #Gainbridge // #PoweredByHonda // #AllAndretti pic.twitter.com/bgIUnaIkwk

— Colton Herta (@ColtonHerta) September 27, 2021

Andretti admitted that he wanted things to fall in place, and would have loved to bring Herta over to F1 as one of his new drivers.

In a pre-season media session, Herta spoke about his F1 dreams in an interview with MotorsportWeek.com. He was asked if he felt disappointed about the fact that he will remain in the series after being linked to an F1 seat.

“No.  No.  You know, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to do Formula 1.  I want to do a lot of stuff in my career. But a lot of it also needs certain timing,” he answered.

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Colton Herta realizes that his chances of getting to F1 will get slimmer with age

Herta is one of the most promising young drivers in the world. Still, he recognizes the fact that his chances of getting to F1 will decrease as he keeps growing older.

Nowadays, F1 teams prefer to have drivers who are young and talented, so that they can be a long term asset to the outfit. The California native feels he is ready to join the sport, and wants to take a shot at it before he’s considered to be too old.

“Formula 1 is one of those things.  If you’re 28, you’re not going to Formula 1, unfortunately. That’s just how it works.  The time is right for me if I got the opportunity,” Herta continued.

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“I’d have to have a good think about it, but I most likely would do it because I want to run in Formula 1 at some point. I think people forget that I’m 21 years old. And thing that I can’t come back in five years and still run 15 years in IndyCar and be 40.”

“I definitely want to give F1 a crack if I get the opportunity. But definitely not disappointed at all in IndyCar.  I like this series more than any series in the world, and I enjoy racing in it a lot.”

“But, there’s just a lot of stuff that I’d like to try in my racing career outside of IndyCar”, he concluded.