Herta admits F2 season has been disappointing, sees qualifying form as key to improvement

Colton Herta is targeting improvements across the board as he works to gain traction in his inaugural Formula 2 season.

The nine-time IndyCar race winner switched to F2 this year in a move championed by Dan Towriss, CEO of TWG Global, which is the parent company of both Herta’s former IndyCar team Andretti Global and the Cadillac F1 operation.

The change was intended to help Herta gain experience of tracks, Pirelli tires and other areas that could help prepare him for a potential move to Formula 1 with Cadillac, as well as the super license points required for a driver to be F1-eligible. However as the series approaches its halfway point at Silverstone this weekend, Herta sits 15th in the championship with a best result to date of fifth in the Sprint race at Barcelona.

While some of his performances have been better than the final results suggest, Herta admits that he’s not yet unlocked either his nor the car’s full potential.

“I wouldn't grade my season so far very highly at all,” he said. “It's been disappointing from that side of things, but we just need to continue to improve and make the small steps. Obviously as a racing driver, I want to compete for wins and poles and podiums, and we've been close. But…

“Qualifying has been the Achilles heel for us at the moment, so I think if we can sort that out… our race pace has been much better than our qualifying pace, so that's goal number one right now. If we improve that we can kind of build on it, and hopefully wrap up the end of the season a lot stronger.”

While encouraged by his pace in the races, Herta knows he needs to be starting higher up the grid to realize his goals. Dom Gibbons/Formula 1 via Getty Images

Prior to the season, Herta spoke openly about the challenges that would be involved in adapting to a car and environment so different to IndyCar. At the time, it was predicted that his lack of experience with the Pirellis would be one area he’d be at an initial disadvantage to other drivers that had spent more time in the F1 ladder system. But in trying to explain his qualifying struggles, Herta said that the challenges extend beyond understanding the tires.

“It's not extremely clear (what we’re chasing) every time, so it's not like one shoe fits all at the moment,” he said. “Each track’s a little bit different, and obviously how the tires react and how the car reacts is a little bit different, and the setups and packages that we bring are obviously different.

“I think there's a few things that that are within my control to do better, and (I’m) just kind of focusing on that. But yeah, the tires are a lot more sensitive, I guess we can say, compared to what I'm used to, and bad things that you do to them, you get hurt by it really quickly.

“So yeah, it's a very, very different tire, and to learn just takes time. So that's part of it, but not the whole, the whole equation on what I need to work on.”

One source of encouragement has been Herta’s Hitch teammate Ritomo Miyata, who followed a similar arc to Herta in excelling elsewhere – he won both the Super Formula and Super GT championships in 2023 – but then initially struggling to adapt to F2.

“We’ve talked about it,” Herta said. “He was extremely successful in Super Formula, winning the championship there, and I think went through some similar woes to what I'm going through at the moment.

“So he's been a great asset, and super helpful for me. But it's been fun to talk with him about his experience too, and what he's done. And because he's done so much, we're similar ages, we've been in professional series for a long time before coming to F2, it's cool to kind of pick his brain about Super Formula and what the car is like, and how his transition was like. I see a lot of similarities in what our paths have been.”

In addition to his F2 program, Herta has a test and reserve driver role with Cadillac, and completed the first of his four scheduled FP1 appearances in Barcelona in June. A second is scheduled for the Hungarian GP later this month, but the other two are awaiting finalization.

“I think they are (still) being decided on, depending on multiple factors from the team,” he said.