“These guys eat frog legs and snails”: When Colton Herta shared a laugh at the expense of French teammate Romain Grosjean 

Andretti’s IndyCar driver Colton Herta was teammates with former F1 driver Romain Grosjean for a couple of years i.e. 2022 and 2023. The Frenchman then moved to race with Juncos Hollinger Racing in 2024 while Herta stayed with Andretti. The US-born Herta laughed at the expense of Grosjean when he appeared on The Red Flags podcast’s YouTube shorts in June of 2023.

The host of the podcast started by mentioning that Grosjean is Herta’s teammate and asked the American:

“What's the Frenchest thing you've seen Romain do?”

Colton Herta replied:

“Just probably hate on every type of food that isn't French food. I mean these guys eat frog legs and snails and think they're like culinary geniuses.”

The host and Herta then imitated Grosjean on what he'd do when he's roaming around Indiana and finds American food. The host then advised that the Frenchman must be content with French Fries. However, Colton Herta clarified as he said:

“He doesn't like that. He like, say anything about French Fries, he'll go off about how they're from Belgium.”

Romain Grosjean was involved in a fireball crash at the 2020 Bahrain GP on November 29, 2020. The Frenchman got himself out of the car and managed to escape with his life. The Frenchman did require surgeries as his hands suffered burns. Grosjean didn't return to the world of F1 and joined IndyCar as a part-time driver for the 2021 season.

Grosjean replaced Ryan Hunter-Reay for the 2022 season as he made the move to Andretti. The Frenchman was given the iconic #28 Honda with the DHL livery. However, after two average years with the team where he finished 13th in the championship both years, Grosjean was replaced.

Colton Herta on the other hand has been the Andretti project for years and finished as the runner-up to Alex Palou during the 2024 season. According to reports, the American is set for a drive with the Cadillac F1 team.

IndyCar Insider weighs in on Colton Herta’s Cadillac F1 seat rumors

F1 approved Cadillac's entry for the 2026 season with GM and Andretti supporting the manufacturer. Colton Herta, who was reportedly being prepared for Andretti's F1 project which wasn't approved by the F1 management, is reportedly set to get the Cadillac drive for the 2026 season. Former IndyCar engineer and now reporter Marshall Pruett discussed Herta's chances in his podcast episode MP1559.

Pruett said:

“Odds of Colton Herta being one of Cadillac's drivers in 2026, would say, pretty strong, assuming they get him a sufficient amount of super licence points. He might be a couple shy, not many. Does he want to? I think so. I asked him about this a month or two ago. He said that it's not exactly something that he's chasing but he would certainly be open to it,” he said.

He continued “Colton received a paddock altering new contract a year ago, paying him more than double of what anybody else was receiving. This was all being done not just to hold on to him. This was at the time when the Andretti global F1 folks and program really were confident that they were going to make it into F1 and wanted to retain Colton, their hot young driver to be their lead. So they paid him basically like an F1 driver. So that's the thing I come back on Colton’s side”

Colton Herta currently has 32 super license points. He needs 40 for a super license. Finishing fourth or higher in the 2025 IndyCar championship will give him enough points to qualify for a super license.