Herta still in with a shot of Cadillac race seat as Bottas' pace comes into question

Cadillac CEO Dan Towriss says there’s still a chance Colton Herta ends up in a race seat in 2027 as the team focuses on the race pace of Valtteri Bottas.

Team principal Marcin Budkowski refused to confirm the contractual situations of Bottas and Sergio Perez at the start of the United States Grand Prix weekend, but Towriss stated both are under contract when speaking to SiriusXM on the grid in Austin. Despite that, Towriss says the situation is being reviewed, with Bottas having nearly been lapped by Perez in Singapore, prior to a much stronger showing at Circuit of the Americas.

“I think over the next few weeks we’ll be able to talk more about what we’re doing on drivers. Obviously we’ve got Checo and Valtteri on contract, we love what they’re doing. Obviously Valtteri has had a few races where he’s been off the race pace, so we’re talking about that, and we’ll see what happens.”

Asked specifically if Herta could still get a chance, Towriss replied: “Yeah, there’s always a chance.”

Herta took part in FP1 at COTA to move closer to the required Super License points to race in Formula 1, but will need further outings in the upcoming races to remain an option. He’s unable to pick up the required points through the remaining Formula 2 rounds, so the Californian admits he has been enjoying the chance to focus on F1 runs.

“Up and down,” Herta told RACER of his year. “Mostly down, if I'm being honest. I think the F2 stuff has been disappointing. So whenever I get these outings in the F1 car and get to focus on that and really pour a lot of energy into that, it's very fun. But we've still got two more weekends of F2, and that's going to take a lot of time and prep, which we'll have now after this F1.”

Whether there is a change in the driver line-up or not, Towriss says he has been proud of the way Cadillac has been working behind the scenes as it looks to make a further step forward with its second F1 car next season.

“It’s just been building every day, every week, every month,” Towriss said. “Even the team, we started as a bunch of individuals and the racing coming together, the progress has been tremendous within the team. Obviously a lot of work is going into the development of the 2027 car, and we will just continue to push, we’re a brand new team in Formula 1.”