An emotional Colton Herta drops 'that one hurts' verdict as potential win goes begging with poor Andretti pitstop

Colton Herta expressed his emotions after losing out on a potential win due to a pit stop mishap, which eventually landed him in 16th. The American started the inaugural Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in second and was running in the top-5 until the slow pit stop on lap 36.

Finishing third-place last season, Herta did not get off to a good start in this year's opening weekend despite putting in an impressive performance in qualifying and starting on the front row alongside Scott McLaughlin.

On lap 36 out of 100, Herta was among the leaders of the race who pitted from fifth. But as the 24-year-old came into the pit box, the pit crew had problems changing the right-rear tire. This slow pit stop completely undid all of the work Herta had put in up until that point and he was playing catch-up from that point onwards.

After the race, a distraught Herta posted on X (formerly Twitter), expressing his feelings after a tough start to the 2025 IndyCar season. In the post, he stood by his team, who have come under fire since the incident and wrote:

"That one hurts, but my guys have always had my back and I’ll always have theirs. We’ll break down where we went wrong and fix it for the future."

Prior to the race, Colton Herta had promised fans a great spectacle in the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and the expectations were high from the American after having started in second.

While Herta had a race to forget, the inaugural race of the 2025 season did deliver with on-track drama, as reigning champion Alex Palou claimed the win to start off his title-defense with a positive result.

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Colton Herta recently mentioned his love for working with his current team

Colton Herta at the PPG 375, 2023 - Source: Getty

Prior to the first race of the season in St. Pete, Colton Herta had mentioned that it would not be easy for him to make a potential switch away from IndyCar because he loves working with his current team at Andretti. The American has been strongly linked with a move over to F1 in 2026.

Speaking to the media prior to the first race of the season, Herta had mentioned that it would be a difficult decision if he had to leave his team and go away to compete in F1. He also mentioned how he may never get a chance to work with the same people ever again.

"I’d be leaving a great group of people I really like working with, so it’s not a sure thing for me. It’s not an easy decision, just to be like, ‘Alright, see you guys later.’ I’d be giving up an opportunity of maybe never working with these people again.” [via AP News]

It is safe to say that Colton Herta has a lot of respect and admiration for his team at Andretti and this pit stop incident alone will not be enough to make him go against them. He also credited his team after the brilliant qualifying result on Saturday.