"He trained alongside Lando Norris": Mario Andretti doubles down on Colton Herta's Cadillac F1 chances

IndyCar driver Colton Herta is rumored to be the favorite for the Cadillac F1 seat. Former F1 and IndyCar champion Mario Andretti recently came out and doubled down on Andretti Global’s driver’s chances to sign with Cadillac and he reflected on the American's open wheel racing career.

During the mid-2010s, Colton Herta moved to Europe to race in the junior Formula championships and faced the likes of Lando Norris in the series. The 25-year-old was also the test driver for the McLaren F1 team in 2022 and Zak Brown presented Herta the opportunity to test the F1 car on track.

Mario Andretti was featured on ESPN Racing's podcast uploaded in March 2025 and highlighted Colton Herta’s chances to sign with Cadillac as he looked back on the American’s career. He said,

“You got to look back at where & how he (Colton Herta) trained, you know and how good he was immediately when he came back to the States. And sometimes you cannot judge a driver on a specific season because of the functions of the team and so forth.” (19:05 onwards)

“But you know basically he trained just like alongside the likes of Lando Norris for instance when he was going through Formula 3, Formula 2 in the early stages of his career as a teenager he was living in Europe and then the first really top level racing was when he came to America,” added Mario Andretti

Many IndyCar insiders and motorsport pundits including Marshall Pruett have come out and labelled Colton Herta as the favorite to get the Cadillac F1 seat. The 25-year-old was in the running to get the Andretti F1 seat before the entry was rejected by Formula One Management.

However, with Andretti and General Motors backing the Cadillac F1 project, and the recent changes done by Dan Towriss, the Cadillac F1 and the IndyCar project come under the umbrella of TWG Motorsports.

Mario Andretti labels Colton Herta as “Championship material” amid Cadillac F1 rumors

Mario Andretti was appointed as the director of the Cadillac F1 board and spoke with Motorsports before the start of the 2025 IndyCar season. He described Colton Herta as a great candidate for the Cadillac F1 seat and then detailed the American’s characteristics which make him a championship-winning driver. He said,

“He's also very versatile. He's good in every area, like the ovals, short ovals, superspeedway. He's competitive everywhere, so he's definitely championship material.”

Speaking about the criteria for selecting the drivers for the Cadillac F1 project, Andretti added,

“It's clear that the objectives are to have at least one American driver and then another experienced driver alongside, and start like that.”

Herta currently sits on 32 Super License points and would need 40 points to get one. The Andretti Global driver would need to finish P4 or higher in the championship to acquire enough points for a super license.