Colton Herta's F1 Dream: Ericsson's Bold Endorsement
Feb.10 - Colton Herta is good enough to race in Formula 1.
That is the word from his teammate at the Andretti team in Indycar, former F1 driver Marcus Ericsson.
The Andretti-instigated Cadillac team entry for 2026 has made clear from the start that Herta, 24, is the clear favourite to represent America from the F1 cockpit.
"From the beginning, the team has considered Colton to be one of the main drivers," 1978 world champion Mario Andretti confirmed.
Experienced drivers - like former Sauber driver Ericsson, 34 - could then be a likely option for the other seat.
"They have asked me to fly to England to try out different simulators," the Swede told Viaplay. "I will give them my opinion so they can choose the right model for the whole organisation, including Formula 1."
Ericsson and Herta have often clashed on and off the track in Indycar, but Ericsson thinks his teammate is more than good enough to thrive on the F1 grid.
"I think he even sometimes doesn't know himself how he can be so fast in certain corner combinations," he told Speed Street. "He's just got that feel for things.
"When he gets into his zone, he can just do things with a race car that very few people can do. So he's definitely up there as one of the best teammates I've raced against."
✅ Check out more posts with related topics:
Unfortunately for them, Herta is unlikely to accept an offer as he's talked about switching to F1 & moving away from the US deep into his professional career in a skeptical manner, so Jak Crawford could be their best US driver bet.
What an Earth is the fifth paragraph about, though? Marcus Ericsson will never race in F1 again in any case, given how long he's been away, which is simply too excessive for a driver without any previous sporting success in F1.
His sole purpose is the help out with simulations, which is a totally different matter.
The experienced driver or rather driver with actual vast F1 racing experience would be either Perez or Bottas, with the former likely based on a Marca report about him & his backers attempting to get a drive at Cadillac, possibly even entering negotiations this early in the year.
Overall, the short-list is relatively scarce, with only Perez, Bottas, & Zhou drivers with any previous F1 racing experience who could be viable options, albeit even a PER-BOT or PER-ZHO could alternatively be their first driver lineup as they don't definitively need to have a US driver, especially immediately.
However, due to the likelihood & indications thus far, I reckon Crawford-Perez in the end.
What an Earth is the fifth paragraph about, though? Marcus Ericsson will never race in F1 again in any case
Hes done well in Indy car and is still young enough for F1, so it is possible, just unlikely, given VBs more recent experience , however VB or SP might say No to the seat, Success wise ME doesnt need F1 he can race fairly sucessfully in the USA, but again stranger things have happened.
I'm sure at least VB wouldn't say no as he's definitely motivated to race in F1 again & the same with GZ, but SP is another matter due to his lengthy subpar period, which could've hampered his motivation as it did to DR, but we'll see.
However, suddenly thinking about someone who hasn't raced in F1 for over six years (or seven a year from now, both of which are like forever ago in motorsport terms) is simply unreasonable or otherwise, we might as well consider Vandoorne, Grosjean, Wehrlein, Hartley, Mazepin, Latifi, Sargeant, De Vries, Giovinazzi, Mick, etc. if the time away, or experience & sporting success amount in F1 didn't matter.
Teams tending to avoid drivers after a lengthy period away from F1 racing isn't a coincidence or it wouldn't have happened consistently over the years.
Nevertheless, ME's sole purpose is totally different from actually driving himself, so the fact he isn't even attempting to return is already enough to make mentioning him in these contexts pointless in the first place.
As I said, Unlikely....
Yes, but 'unrealistic' is at least an equally (if not more) fitting word if 'never' is to be avoided at all costs, without intending to prove a point via unnecessary argumentations.
Anyway, Crawford-Perez is my initial prediction unless Herta changes his mind.
This is an odd story anyway, there cant be ten different wind tunnel mfrs for F1/indy/wec, to pick a number at most 3 id say, so is the choice that difficult? all the testings been done by teams that have recently invested in one anyway...!
Odd indeed.
✅ Checkout the latest 50 F1 Fans comments.