Colton Herta is set to drive in Barcelona for Cadillac, with the American keen to show the team what he can do.
Colton Herta's work with Cadillac is set to step up a gear in the following weeks, with the American due to make his F1 race weekend debut at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.
Earlier in April it was confirmed that Herta would get his first run out in a competitive session during in the opening practice session of the Barcelona weekend, an opportunity he concedes is not without pressure.
Currently competing in F2 with Hitech, with the support series also due to race in Miami in what will be the first North American outing for the championship, Herta knows there's a great deal of expectation in terms of proving himself. After all, the former IndyCar racer has been open about pushing to make it to F1 in the future.
“You want to be fast in any car you drive, and this isn't going to be any different, so it's going to be taken very seriously on my part," he says.
“But I think the biggest goal is they [Cadillac] need to see value in me doing it. The team needs to see value, and they need to come out of it positively. It can't all just be about me and how fast I want to go.”
Preparing in the simulator with Cadillac
Preparations for the first confirmed FP1 session of four in total will begin in earnest ‘soon’ according to the Cadillac Test Driver.
While he has been hard at work with Hitech in F2, the last time he drove the F1 team’s simulator was before pre-season testing.
A lot has chanced since then, and with Herta having spent some time away from the F1 set up, he is eager to get stuck in once again with early season learnings taken into account.
“I think the sim programme is going to ramp up from here pretty soon in preparation for these FP1s," he explains. "But, when I had driven it, the car hadn't even done a winter test yet.
“So it was very early on, and it was a pretty big guessing game. But from the feedback that I've seen from Checo [Perez] and Valtteri [Bottas], it seems like the guessing was pretty accurate as far as the mechanical and engine side.
“I think it was positive. I think I'll get my next taste in the next few weeks and have a better understanding where I need to be at before I get in the real thing.”
Making F1 a priority over an Indy 500 cameo
Herta had hoped at one stage to be able to return to IndyCar for a one-off appearance at this year's Indy 500, though that opportunity has now closed due to the addition of Montreal to the F2 calendar.
There was even an outside chance he was banking on that would have allowed him to compete in both events on the same Sunday, though he quickly realised timelines and preparations for both would not line up.
While it was a disappointment for the American driver not to get a chance to race at Indianapolis as he’d hoped, his F2 season and wider work with Cadillac take priority.
“I had visions in my head of being able to do that but I kind of always knew it wasn't going to be achievable legitimately," he admits.
"As far as the Indy side, you miss Carb Day, which is a very important day, and then even if it were to work it's difficult because F2 and Cadillac is the clear priority for me this year.
“That was just going to kind of be a little bit of an added bonus when I had a bit of time off. But, it wasn't meant to be this year.”
Herta hoping Barcelona familiarity pays off
Even though Herta last raced around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya nearly a decade ago, the 26-year-old does have more recent experience around the Spanish venue courtesy of pre-season testing with F2.
He completed 205 laps across the three-day event, allowing him to build up plenty of track specific knowledge he’ll now be carrying into his simulator work with Cadillac.
Herta acknowledges that the experience will definitely count in his favour with a better understanding of the circuit in its current state versus how it was back in 2016.
Fonte original: Formula 1