Colton Herta is heading to a Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend. The Cadillac Formula 1 Team has confirmed its Test Driver will take part in four Free Practice 1 sessions across the 2026 season, with his first appearance scheduled for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. The 26-year-old from Santa Clarita, California, becomes the first American driver to represent the Cadillac Formula 1 Team on a live Grand Prix weekend.
Key Points: Colton Herta Cadillac F1 FP1 Program 2026
- Herta confirmed for four FP1 sessions with the Cadillac Formula 1 Team in 2026
- First appearance at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix
- Miami Grand Prix weekend also confirmed, coinciding with F2’s first visit to the Miami Autodrome
- Herta, 26, from Santa Clarita, California, is the team’s Test Driver
- He has completed simulator runs at Cadillac’s facility in Charlotte ahead of track time
- Herta scored points on his F2 debut at Albert Park, finishing seventh in the Feature Race
- Graeme Lowdon is Team Principal; Dan Towriss is CEO of Cadillac Formula 1 Team Holdings
From Charlotte to Barcelona
The FP1 program follows simulator work Herta has completed at Cadillac’s base in Charlotte, North Carolina. The team has been building his integration into a Formula 1 environment before placing him in the car on a live Grand Prix weekend. Barcelona is the first step. Three further sessions follow across the season.
Alongside his Cadillac Test Driver role, Herta has been competing in the FIA Formula 2 Championship. His debut weekend at Albert Park produced a seventh-place finish in the Feature Race, which brought him points on his first appearance in the series. Miami will mark a double appearance on the same weekend, with Formula 2 visiting the Miami Autodrome for the first time.
What They Said
“I can’t wait to get behind the wheel of the Cadillac Formula 1 Team car for the first time. I am looking forward to working closely with the team in a full Grand Prix environment and am fully focused on learning from every appearance. I hope I can contribute to the overall race weekend and help the team, Checo and Valtteri as much as possible.”
Colton Herta, Test Driver, Cadillac Formula 1 Team
“Colton is a top talent, which he has not only proved by building an impressive resume in the NTT IndyCar Series before joining us, but also with a strong start to his Formula 2 season. Completing all four of our young driver FP1 sessions is a natural next step in his Test Driver role, and I look forward to seeing what he can bring in terms of development and focus.”
Graeme Lowdon, Team Principal, Cadillac Formula 1 Team
“Colton has really earned this opportunity. These sessions are a valuable opportunity for him to integrate with the team, develop his skills behind the wheel and off the track, and learn about a Grand Prix weekend from the inside.”
Dan Towriss, CEO, Cadillac Formula 1 Team Holdings
Coffee Corner Take
Colton Herta has been chasing Formula 1 for years. That is not a secret. The 2022 AlphaTauri conversation that almost happened before politics got in the way, the superlicense points debate, the IndyCar seasons that never quite translated into the seat he wanted. It has been a long road just to get here.
This may not be the race seat he craves but it is a seat in F1. Four FP1 sessions in a car that Valtteri Bottas and Checo Perez are racing full-time. A Formula 1 car. A live Grand Prix weekend. And it is a Cadillac. No major American manufacturer has ever put an American driver in their Formula 1 car. Dan Gurney won at Spa in 1967 in a car he built himself under All American Racers. That story belongs to him alone. That’s different. GM, Cadillac, a full manufacturer program, an American driver in the seat. That combination has never existed before.
Cadillac are three races into their F1 existence with an operation split across three bases: Indianapolis, Charlotte, and Silverstone. Simulator work has been happening in Charlotte. But Herta’s F2 campaign is with Hitech, who operate on the Silverstone complex, on the same industrial stretch opposite that historic circuit. He is already there. Seat fittings, car prep, race weekend integration. Not a driver flying in as a guest. Already part of the fabric. That has been deliberate.
He is of course missing those superlicense points. That’s why he is in F2. Learn the car, collect the points, put pressure on Checo and Bottas. You do not run someone through a Charlotte simulator program and hand them four FP1 sessions unless you are building around them. The present belongs to the experience of Checo and Bottas. The future though is surely Herta.
When a Cadillac race seat opens up there is only one logical answer. The team are making sure he’s ready. Herta has been building toward this for years. Today that dream is one step closer with these sessions.
Cadillac Formula 1 Team
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