“It wasn’t meant to be”: When Colton Herta expressed his feelings on potential F1 opportunity

Colton Herta, the Andretti Autosport IndyCar driver, has been knocking on the doors of Formula 1 for quite some time. He has been linked with the sport in the last few years, and back in 2022, there was a real chance of him joining the grid.

However, Herta ultimately missed out on the opportunity (Andretti failed to buy out the Hinwii-based team) with Sauber (currently Stake F1). In line with this, he said in an interview with Indy Star in 2022:

"It burns a little now, seeing how good they are this year, but it wasn’t meant to be. And honestly, it’s a good thing it didn’t happen and a good thing they didn’t try to push it anymore. Michael and Dan [Towriss] did everything they should have in that situation, but you can’t force it. It wasn’t a good deal, so props to them for stepping away from it."

In 2022, Colton Herta drove a Formula 1 car for the first time when he took the wheel of McLaren's 2021 MCL35M in a test.

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Colton Herta on driving a Ferrari Formula 1 car in 2022

While Colton Herta wasn't able to secure a 2022 seat in F1 for a few specific reasons, he was also on the fringes of driving a Ferrari F1 car. He talked about this in the same 2022 interview as he said:

"In the end, I don’t think Ferrari even had a car ready, but they’d said ‘let’s see if we can do it. I might have had contracts sent to me. It was really [expletive] close – closer than people know. But then it all started to crumble."

Colton Herta, at the age of just 24, has achieved a lot in his racing career. In 2019, he became the youngest driver to ever win an IndyCar Grand Prix. He secured a win at the iconic Circuit of the Americas when he was only 18 years old.

Since then, he has continued to climb the ladder in the highest class of open-wheel racing in America. He has so far managed to secure 100 race starts and has amassed nine wins, 18 podiums and 14 pole positions.

Moreover, in the 2024 season of the sport, he ended his 17-race campaign in an impressive runner-up position. Herta managed 513 points and was able to put on board two wins, three pole positions, 11 top-five and 14 top-ten finishes.

In the ongoing 2025 IndyCar season, he is currently in 15th place in the overall drivers' standings. There are still 16 Grand Prix remaining in the campaign with the second event slated to take place at the Thermal Club in California.