Colton Herta Opens Eyes, if Not Doors, at McLaren With F1 Test in Portugal

• McLaren signed Andretti IndyCar racer Colton Herta to a F1 development deal earlier this year.

• Herta, 22, completed 162 laps of the former Portuguese Grand Prix venue in a year-old car. The distance was equivalent to 466 miles (750 km).

• Herta is a candidate for the two Friday practice outings that McLaren must fill with a rookie driver at some stage across the second half of the Formula 1 season.

Colton Herta completed his first Formula 1 test on Tuesday after carrying out two days of running with McLaren in Portugal.

McLaren signed Andretti IndyCar racer Herta to a development deal earlier this year and he got behind the wheel of the 2021-spec Mercedes-powered McLaren MCL35M across Monday and Tuesday at Portimão.

Herta completed 162 laps of the former Portuguese Grand Prix venue, equivalent to 466 miles (750 km), but no lap times were released by McLaren.

“It was a lot of fun, a great two days getting acclimated to the car, which is obviously quite a bit different to what I’m used to driving,” said Herta. “It’s a little bit of a different driving style but the engineers were very helpful getting me up to speed. And what a car to drive, it’s really special to not only have a first test in a Formula 1 car but to have it in a race-winning Formula 1 car is even cooler.”

Herta reiterated that targeting a Formula 1 seat “is a goal of mine and has been for a while” but emphasized that the two-day test was mainly “to see what these cars are all about, and luckily McLaren was able to give me a chance.”

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl was encouraged by the performance of the 22-year-old.

“First and foremost (the test was to) give Colton the opportunity to get used to the car,” Seidl said. “Then different (driving) techniques, getting used to a different operational aspect of Formula 1 race weekends like comparing different tire compounds, running at different fuel loads, do quali runs, race simulation runs as well.

“I have to say the team was quite impressed at how Colton was dealing with all these challenges and his professional approach, his physical preparation was enabling him to really keep going throughout these two days, knowing how challenging this can be in a Formula 1 car on a track like Portimao. This allowed him to build up pace gradually, get confidence, and finding always the right balance between taking risk and keeping the car on the track which is important on a test like this. Yeah, very happy with how the test went.”

For Herta’s part he “felt comfortable right away” but acknowledged “the biggest thing was putting a lap together. I felt like I got to the limit about mid-way through the day but that was just separate corners being put together, whereas by the end of the second day I was pretty confident at putting the laps together in low fuel, high fuel, and everything in-between.”

Herta described McLaren’s MCL35M as “a completely different feel” to his Andretti-run IndyCar, recognizing the “pretty incredible” torque and “the straight-line speed, the acceleration, the braking,” while also the requirement of “slowing down the hands” because of the power steering on a Formula 1 car.

“We were able to go through a lot of different things: balance changes, mechanically, aerodynamically, and inside the car I got to play with the tools, the diff settings, all that sort of stuff,” Herta explained. “It was pretty cool to see the balance changes and what you can do with the car, inside the car, which is more than we’re able to do in the IndyCar, so it was awesome. If you have a problem in one corner you can adjust it in the flick of a finger.”

Herta is a candidate for the two FP1 outings that McLaren must fill with a rookie driver at some stage across the second half of the season, an aspect he said he would be open to as “it would be cool to have a taste of the 2022 cars.”

Seidl says that the squad will “go into the data in detail to get an initial idea of the potential Colton has shown in our car and then we will have a better picture,” in terms of whether Herta ticks that box.

McLaren has Lando Norris under contract through 2025 while Daniel Ricciardo’s deal lasts through the end of 2023. Ricciardo has struggled during his 18-month spell with McLaren but both parties have stressed that they are committed to each other for the duration of the contract.

Herta, contracted with Andretti through 2023, was lined up for one of the 2022 Formula 1 seats had Andretti’s proposed takeover of the Sauber-run Alfa Romeo team not fallen through last October. He remains a prospective candidate for a 2024 seat with Andretti if the U.S. outfit is successful in its attempt to enter a new team into Formula 1.

On whether Herta was a contender for a 2024 seat at McLaren Seidl replied: “As always we take it step-by-step. The objective for this test today was to give Colton a chance to experience a Formula 1 car for the first time, and that was the focus. What comes next? It’s something we will take step by step, we will take our time. That’s where we are.”

For now Herta’s mindset is just to “try and go as fast as I can and hopefully open some doors at some point.”