Colton Herta ‘loves’ racing IndyCar but still has interest in Formula One

Though his IndyCar team’s dalliance with Formula One was appealing, Colton Herta said he remains happy returning to the NTT IndyCar Series this season after Andretti Autosport explored putting him in an F1 ride.

After his bid to buy a majority stake in the Alfa Romeo team was derailed a few months ago, Michael Andretti said Herta, 21, would “lead the way” in a potential F1 foray because “he’d be the perfect guy to do it. We definitely were going to try to get him into the seat because I believe he could be a competitive driver in Europe. I really do.”

During preseason IndyCar interviews Tuesday, Herta gave his reaction to Andretti’s Alfa Romeo deal falling through and noted that a driver’s window for making the jump to F1 is narrow.

“I was never disappointed because I have a great opportunity here in America with Andretti and IndyCar,” Herta said. “Obviously, I love racing Indy cars. I’ve grown up racing Indy cars, but there is other stuff that I’d like to drive in my career, and some of that stuff like Formula One is time-sensitive. If I don’t get the opportunity soon, we’ve seen how crucial it is to be in at a young age there. It just doesn’t happen later.

“It was something that I was interested in. It didn’t happen, but I’m not disappointed it didn’t happen. I’m not living a sorrow story with the backup plan being an Andretti IndyCar team. I’m not living the worst life.”

Andretti, who drove for McLaren during the 1993 F1 season, has said he still wants to be involved as an F1 team owner, which would broaden a racing empire that fields cars in several series such as IndyCar, IMSA and Extreme E.

Before excelling in Indy Lights in 2017-18 and becoming the youngest IndyCar winner in history as a 2019 rookie, Herta raced