The driver, who races in Indycar with the Andretti team, will enter the McLaren test program: he is the prelude to the creation of an Italian-American family team in F1
McLaren F1 has announced Colton Herta as a new member of the 2022 test team. The 22-year-old American Indycar driver with team Andretti was already considered the most “ready” of the US drivers to jump into F1. He would be one of the drivers designated for the possible landing of the Andretti family with a team in F1 in the near future, hence the inclusion among the McLaren drivers as a test driver to gain experience. According to the regulations of the World Championship, Herta will be able to drive the older McLaren F1 cars of 2021, from the MCL35 backwards, so to speak.
what mclaren thinks
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“Colton is a driver who is showing great talent in F1 and we are very interested to see how he adapts to F1,” explained McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl. Herta does not have enough points for the Super license but will still have the opportunity to forfeit precious kilometers. In 2019, at the age of 19, he became the youngest driver to win the Indycar championship: since then the son of art – his father Bryan, a former driver, is now his strategy manager – has collected 5 more successes and seven pole positions in Indycar.
what herta thinks
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“I am grateful to McLaren for the opportunity to drive an F1 car,” explained Herta, “which has always been on my to-do list.” His entry into McLaren cools the hopes of landing in F1 of a former Herta teammate, Pato O’Ward, who in Indycar races with Arrow-McLaren and who in recent times has tested the McLaren F1 several times in agreement with the great leader Zak Brown; also because both Norris (2025) and Ricciardo (2023) shouldn’t leave the British team. On the subject, Brown explained: “We need a program of young testers, as was once at McLaren. And O’Ward is part of the family, of course. But since we don’t know the unexpected events of the future, Pato and Colton are in the our galaxy. But I would never move O’Ward from Indycar without having a substitute to the height and without being able to give him a level solution in F1. Indycar is worth as much for us as F1, it is not a training championship “.
March 12, 2022 (change March 12, 2022 | 18:24)
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