Colton Herta to drive in Brazil FP1 for final FIA superlicence point
The Cadillac test driver will step into Sergio Perez's car at Interlagos to secure the remaining point needed for his Formula 1 superlicence.
Cadillac test driver Colton Herta will participate in his sixth Friday practice session of the Formula 1 season at the upcoming Brazil Grand Prix. The session gives the American driver an opportunity to collect his final missing FIA superlicence point required to race in the series.
Herta needs a total of 40 points to obtain the credential. Cadillac initially believed the former IndyCar driver had reached the threshold last week in Mexico, but confusion over his previous IndyCar results left the Californian one point short. To rectify the error, Cadillac is putting Herta into Sergio Perez's car for the first practice session at Interlagos.
While Formula 1 teams are only required to run a rookie in four FP1 sessions per year, Sao Paulo will mark Herta's sixth outing of the season as the team works to secure his license. Team principal Marcin Budkowski noted that Herta's growth and feedback remain invaluable to their development program.
Herta previously faced setbacks during his superlicence quest when an issue in Monza limited his running. Because his car broke down, he fell short of the 100-kilometer threshold required for the session to award a point. At the Interlagos circuit, completing 24 laps will satisfy the distance requirement.
The calculation error in Mexico stemmed from an IndyCar website misclassification that mistakenly listed Herta sixth in the 2025 standings instead of seventh. This discrepancy meant Herta earned four superlicence points for his campaign rather than the six initially calculated by the team.
Securing the final point in Brazil will clear regulatory hurdles for Herta, keeping his options open for a potential Formula 1 debut in 2027. Cadillac is currently weighing whether to retain incumbent driver Valtteri Bottas for a second year alongside Perez or promote Herta to a race seat.
Reflecting on the upcoming opportunity, Herta expressed excitement about driving at the historic venue. "Interlagos is such an iconic, historic track, and driving an F1 car around there is going to be an awesome experience," Herta said. He added that his goal is to execute a clean run plan and provide the engineering team with valuable setup data.
Meanwhile, Cadillac heads to Brazil following a challenging weekend in Mexico, which concluded with Bottas suffering a high-speed crash due to a front-left suspension failure. Budkowski stated that the team has implemented necessary mitigations to prevent similar issues during the upcoming race weekend.