Intro To IndyCar - Andretti Global - Pt 4 - Colton Herta

Our final part of the Andretti Global series is its senior-most driver, who happens to also be the youngest on the team, Colton Herta. In his sixth season in IndyCar, Colton will be one of the hottest topics in IndyCar this year.

In all reality, I struggled with this because I have a lot more to say about Colton besides a profile, statistics and why he's a great choice for a favorite driver. But I wanted to get the index down before going into detailed articles.

Here's Colton's headshot from his driver profile on the IndyCar website.

In my first article, I mentioned that one of the earlier drivers for Andretti was a man named Bryan Herta. Bryan is Colton's father, and the connection between father, son and team is not to be underestimated. There is a lot of footage of Bryan at the 500 competing with a young Colton in frame.

Honestly, they're very cute clips, if you'd like to see what he looked like when he was younger.

But that's besides the point. Colton began karting at age six in 2006, and then moved up to competitive karting in 2010 at ten years old.

This trajectory is more in line with Palou's , or even more traditional racing drivers. I'm thinking the Earnhardt family, the Sainz family, even F1's current champion Verstappen has a family history steeped deep in racing. Therefore, they seem to start younger.

A note that there will be a lot of discussion of Formula 1 in this post. This is for a variety of reasons, but most importantly, Colton's path is similar to Palou's in the fact it, for a long time, seemed to veer towards F1. He also holds records comparable to current Formula 1 World Champion Max Verstappen. I think for those of you new to IndyCar but not to racing, seeing these stats may help you develop an understanding of Colton more holistically.

To be honest, a great deal of F1 drivers started this young in the competitive circuits. To compare Herta to his teammate, fellow American Kirkwood, Kirkwood started competitive karting at seventeen. Though many of the profiles I've already done mention the step up, they were all a little older than Colton.

He competed in F2000 at fourteen, came in fifteenth and then promptly moved into European karting.

There are a few stories similar to Colton's, but they lie in F1 style racers like current F1 driver Lance Stroll (who moved to Europe from Canada at age twelve) and previous F1 driver Logan Sargeant (who moved to Europe from Florida at twelve also).

His first competition in Europe was in 2015, when he competed in the MS Formula Championship in the UK. This is a Formula 4 equivalency; he raced for Carlin with current F1 driver Lando Norris. He came in third, Norris came in first.

2016 saw him in the Euroformula Championship full time, where he placed third. In the sub-championship of Spanish F3 he came second. He competed twice in British F3 with Carlin, substituting for Lando Norris in rounds 2 and 4.

Then, instead of grinding his way up in a group of spectacular European drivers, Colton returned to the US. I think perhaps this was the smartest decision he and his team made. Looking at the next step in the European chain, either GP3 or F2, now consolidated down, he would have faced stiff competition. In 2017, F2 was won by Charles Leclerc by 70 points, GP3 was won by George Russell by 79 points. Both of these drivers, along with Herta's Carlin teammate Lando Norris, are Formula 1 race winners.

So Herta and co returned to the US and the Road To Indy. Indy Lights, however, was not only home turf but familiar territory. In 2017, there wasn't another son of an Indy Lights title winner there. Drivers, yes, but not winners.

However, there was a son of Reba McEntire in the competition as well.

Anyway, Colton came in third that rookie year in Indy Lights with the Andretti Steinbrenner Team, also taking the Rookie of the Year title.

2018 saw him return with the same team, and he placed second to 2018's rookie of the year and his teammate, Pato O'Ward.

It also saw him in his debut in IndyCar. Given a drive at the season closer at Sonoma (one race only) with Harding Racing.

2019 saw him step up to IndyCar proper. He remained with Harding, which merged with his junior team Steinbrenner to become Harding Steinbrenner Racing, and gave Colton the #88 car. He was a very young man in the sport, freshly eighteen. On the other side of the pond, we saw his former teammate Lando Norris step into Formula 1 at the same age.

But therein lies the difference. In Colton's third IndyCar race, the second of the season, he won. He is the youngest person ever to win an IndyCar race, at 18 years, 11 months and 25 days old.

For reference, F1's youngest winner was Max Verstappen at 18 years and 7.5 months old. But that wasn't in his rookie year; Verstappen's first win didn't come until his sophomore year after a team change.

Colton's 2019 was very tumultuous. He placed fifth in qualifying for the 500, but failed to finish due to a gear box issue. After his win, he had a streak of seven finishes outside of the top ten, a pole that he failed to convert to a win at Road America, and then another pole conversion failure in Portland before winning the final round at Laguna Seca.

This struggle lead him to finish in seventh overall, seven points behind fellow rookie Felix Rosenqvist, who earned the Rookie of the Year title.

2020 was a strange year for all, but a good year for Colton. Andretti joined Harding & Steinbrenner as a sponsor for Colton, and overall he had a more consistent year. Only three finishes out of the top ten, and his one pole he converted into his only win of the abbreviated season. However, all of these consistent elements had him end up third in the championship.

2021 saw a few changes on the back end. Colton became a solely Andretti driver, switching to the #26 car previously driven by Zach Veach. Halfway through the year, Colton added a co-sponsor to his car, which is the Curb-Agajanian Performance Group, mid-year. They'd sponsored Colton in 2014 in a lower series and returned to him in 2021.

It was somewhat of a better year for Colton, as he won three races, and two of those were pole conversions. However, of the sixteen races, he finished eight out of the top ten, and didn't convert a separate, third pole to a win. Some high highs and very low lows placed Colton into fifth for the championship that year.

Then came the drought that is synonymous with Andretti. Between May 4th 2022 and July 21st 2024, Colton won no races. Five pole positions, none converted, and both 2022 and 2023 saw Colton sit in tenth place in the championship.

However, 2024 saw a change in the game. While the hybrid engine system saw Colton return to the top step, in general 2024 was a better season for him. His highest finish in IndyCar (second place) and his highest volume of podiums in a season (six).

This finish now ties into a bigger conversation coming into 2025's IndyCar season and the general conversation for Andretti. As stated, at the end of 2024, Michael Andretti stepped away from the team, in order to allow it to enter Formula 1 as Cadillac.

While I've spoken in depth about Colton's Road to Indy, and have stated several times his story until Indy Lights is a more traditional Formula 1 path, I haven't talked about his brushes with Formula 1.

Unlike Power and Dixon, who had test drives but not a real foundation, and unlike his teammate Ericsson who departed for IndyCar, Colton is more like the next Juan Pablo Montoya in the way he could go from one discipline to the other. Montoya was a winner in CART and a 500 winner who then went to F1 and finished highly with Williams.

The main difference there is the issue of the Super License.

For those of you who don't know the context behind the Super License points and why it's so frustrating, a short view into the past.

In 2015, a young man named Max Verstappen came third in Formula 3. His team, Red Bull, decided to place him at their junior team in 2016 despite being seventeen years old. This article showcases the rules implemented in order to prevent it from happening again. Verstappen was under 18 and while he held a Super License, he didn't hold a regular driver's license. These restrictions were put into place to make sure that there was enough experience for young drivers before making it into F1, guaranteeing the full 40 points.

Only a win in the following categories guarantees the full 40 points - F3 (which Verstappen did not win), F2, a WEC Championship or winning the IndyCar championship. The other positions in these championships afford different points, but not the full forty. And they do not last more than three years.

While the following year in F1, Lance Stroll did win the F3 Championship and enter F1 at 18, it has left those on the Road To Indy unable to switch lanes as quickly as those on the Road To F1 are able to.

Even without the points, the carrot has been dangled in front of Colton several times. His speed and ability were obvious even in his rookie year in IndyCar, and the top teams in Formula 1 took notice.

While Andretti with formally confirmed to be entering IndyCar as of the week of March 7th, 2025, we must reflect on their earlier attempts this decade. Andretti Global attempted to purchase Sauber in 2021. This would have put Colton in the seat held by Guyanu Zhou in 2023 and 2024. Negotiations broke down before Herta could get further within the process of getting his qualifications.

Sauber was on the market for a while longer before being purchased by Audi last year.

Following that, Colton was a test driver with McLaren for 2022.He test drove the MCL35M from 2021 at a test at the track in Portimão, Portugal. At this point in time, McLaren was already testing fellow IndyCar driver and Herta's one time teammate O'Ward. Though it made sense to test both, the fact O'Ward was already in their team structure leant more credence to O'Ward being their choice for their seat.

In all reality, that second seat ended up going to Oscar Piastri, in what is now known informally as 'Tweetgate'. Neither Herta or O'Ward were serious contenders with an F2 champion in the wings, as silly as that is.

Yet during his trial in Portimão, he caught the eye of Red Bull Racing. They were looking for someone in the second seat of their junior team, then called AlphaTauri. But Colton required more points on his license, as he didn't have forty points on his license. Red Bull requested an exemption for Herta, but the FIA disallowed it.

This to me is very perplexing, as by that point in time Colton had six wins in IndyCar. The secondary driver for Red Bull, Sergio Pérez, had three wins in Formula 1; Checo left the series with only six wins to his name.

As any racing fan knows, the FIA is a fickle bedfellow, and in the intervening time has been more than willing to truly consider exemptions for those who came up through the proper channels and never won a professional race. The hypocrisy was evident throughout the 2024 season in the case of the young Italian, rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli. By some, he is considered the next Verstappen; skipped F3 to go to F2 at seventeen and did not win, yet was able to be promoted to the F1 grid the following year.

Time will tell with Antonelli.

Either way, this refusal by the FIA made Red Bull discontinue their program with Colton; he never saw the extended FP1 program that would have given him the adequate amount of points.

Now, with the team he has been so loyal to given an entry into Formula 1, and the new owners being in his favor, there is the question of should he stay or should he go? His second place finish has bumped him right under the minimum, and one point is easily made up. Colton has the possibility to do so before summer break while making every IndyCar race with the following FP1's.

Underfunded teams, like fellow American team Haas, oddly placed Sauber, or even a team like Williams, trying to return to form, need money. These three should easily take minor sponsorships from TWG Motorsports or another backer of Colton's, Group 1001, as a swap for Herta to get his 100 km and lone remaining point.

• Japanese GP - April 4th is the FP1 date
• Saudi Arabian GP (this may be tight) - April 20th is the FP1 date
• Canadian GP (feasible, he would miss one day of practice for Gateway, where he came fifth last year) - June 13th
• Austrian GP - June 27th is the FP1 date

But he said in this past week that he's hesitant to do so.

Why shouldn't he be? As the meat of the article shows, he's put in a lot of legwork to be pushing forward in IndyCar. Why take the risk, when he sees success stories like Power and Dixon who settled in and became titans of the sport? Though we are only one race into 2025, it seems that Fox is looking to return on their investment in a big way. That includes Herta.

On top of that, the media scrutiny already shown by the F1 channels shows that it's going to be bumpy. The elitism issue that F1 has can be showcased in how the media treats America's Haas and the rebrand of Force India into Aston Martin by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll. Neither have the heritage in European motorsports that F1 prefers. It's also clear that FOM and the other ten teams were not keen on Cadillac at all; it took the threat of anti-trust lawsuits in the US to force their hand.

Though Colton meets a lot of criteria for a Formula 1 driver with his family heritage and ladder up, what makes him obvious for Cadillac also makes him line up for criticism - he's an American. F1's large issue with North Americans is obvious in the treatment of the drivers from the main three countries - Canada, the United States and Mexico. To open yourself up to that sort of criticism takes a very brave and confident person.

However, Colton is a very brave and confident person. Not brashly over confident at all, Colton has found his footing in the past six years to make him collected both in and out of the car. In fact, I would say Colton has found his footing in a way that Red Bull driver Max Verstappen has not. Verstappen, however, has the double whammy of WDC armor and European media outlets in his favor behind him. All of the issues Colton had early in his career - inconsistency, yelling on the radios, unsportsmanlike behavior - it's all calmed down. He's settled into himself, into his driving, in a way that makes watching things like his win at Nashville last year sweet.

Though he won't be twenty five until the end of this month, he holds a leadership position within the team with ease. He's fun to watch race, he's funny in media, and he's genuinely grateful to be there. His camaraderie with the other drivers is easily relayed on camera; I don't think many other drivers could've gotten away with smashing a donut in someone's face like Colton did last year at the Milwaukee Mile to fellow driver McLaughlin.

If you choose Herta as your driver, you're choosing someone who is ready to settle into what has always been expected of him. Someone focused on his chance at the top step, and even doing the double! His highest finish at the 500 was eighth in 2020, and his highest finish in the championship was last year. You're also choosing someone with a sense of humor, not afraid to rag on himself, and also able to have funny but honest takes on interactions.

An example of this is last year's Detroit GP. AJ Foyt's Santino Ferrucci got into a physical altercation with teammate Kirkwood and then blamed him and Herta for his failed race. Instead of absolutely exploding, Colton gave a pretty calm interview (sorry the only place I can find it is X so link but again, apologies) in which he explained the situation and made valid points about Ferrucci. His ability recently to remain calm, even if a situation upsets him, and point out with clarity what's going on without seeming demeaning is a unique skill. He also let Ferrucci dig his own grave a bit, as he didn't engage with the homophobia spat out by Ferrucci, calling him and Kirkwood 'teammate boyfriends'.

So far, my driver profiles have featured a variety of drivers. Herta's is the first real IndyCar legacy I've hit, and I think it's quite a special one. We'll see in the months to come what life has in store for Herta. No matter the avenue, I reckon it's likely to be an entertaining ride.