Colton Herta says he has lost a “heartbreaking” opportunity to score points in 2022 IndyCar but has not been made worse by the impact of the F1 superlicence on his championship position.
Andretti Autosport driver Colton Herta is being courted by AlphaTauri, who could move to the Alpine F1 team in 2023 with Pierre Gasly replacing Fernando Alonso.
But that depends on Colton Herta getting an F1 superlicence.
Under the current points system Colton Herta is not eligible for an F1 superlicence and rival team bosses have suggested the FIA should abide by the rules and not allow force majeure exceptions.
Colton Herta, 22, has admitted it has been a “pretty disappointing” season with just one win at the Indianapolis road course and is currently in the 2022 standings with this weekend’s final round at Laguna Seca remaining. We are in 8th place.
But Colton Herta, who said he was “a little surprised to hear” that Red Bull were interested in him, said the knowledge that his IndyCar standings would count towards FIA Superlicense points affected his emotions. said it makes little difference to give
“No, I never felt like I needed the maximum IndyCar points to get F1 Super License points and focused on that,” explained Colton Herta.
“I had a feeling it would affect me in the long run when you think about it. I’m disappointed with how things turned out, whether they were in my control or not.”
“Usually, ‘It was really painful for the team to give us a good car every week. We didn’t or couldn’t maximize our opportunities. It was sad for all of us.’
Colton Herta cited Long Beach, the Indy 500 and the second race at the Indy Road Course as the events that hurt him by his standards.
In Long Beach, after taking pole position, he was jumped by several cars in the pit stop sequence and crashed while running third.
At the Indy 500, he started just 25th after his engine stalled on the first qualifying run, then crashed in car body practice, leaving him without track time to fine-tune his backup car before the race. In the final he retired a terribly loose car on lap 129 and was classified only 30th.
When IndyCar made its second visit to the Indianapolis road course in July, he jumped from 16th to the lead before another mechanical failure forced him back into the Liaita. .
“At the Indy 500, after the first engine died, we didn’t have the opportunity to go through the conditioning process and put the new engine settings back where we wanted them. It didn’t go well in qualifying,” said Colton Herta.
“Long Beach is obviously where I completely screwed up and I could have gotten a podium there.”
“And in the second race at the Indy road course, Alex[Rossi]may have caught me, but between us we had the fastest car there.”
“So the last three races we were almost completely done, one of which was worth double points. The points situation was heartbreaking.”
Category: F1 / Colton Herta / indy car