Formula 1 has now reached an ‘agreement in principle’ for Cadillac and GM to join the grid from 2026 as an 11th team.
It comes after Andretti’s original bid to join the grid with backing from Cadillac was rejected by F1, largely due to the commercial viability of having an 11th team that isn’t a manufacturer.
The revised offer appears to now have General Motors at the centre of the project under the Cadillac umbrella, following rumours over the Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend that were gathering pace over a potential new team.
Martin Brundle is fully supportive of Cadillac joining from 2026, while Karun Chandhok was surprised by how fast F1 u-turned on accepting the American outfit. Talk has turned to who Cadillac might field as part of their F1 entry, as it means two spaces on the grid will become available from 2026.
There was always support from Andretti to have an American driver, with IndyCar star Colton Herta touted. But journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm believes there might be one barrier to Herta joining the grid when discussing his chances on The Race podcast.
Colton Herta might be short of F1 superlicence points by 2026
To race on the F1 grid drivers must obtain a superlicence, which contains certain criteria including having a valid drivers licence and at least 40 points accumulated from competing in junior single seater championships.
Drivers must also be at least 18 years old, however, there was a change to the International Sporting Code this year that enabled drivers who are 17 years old to get special dispensation if they can demonstrate extraordinary talent.
Herta is currently 31 super licence points having earned one in 2023 for finishing P10 in the IndyCar championship and 30 in 2024 for finishing second in the championship. When he comes to apply for his licence for 2025, he will need to take his points from 2023 and 2022 according to Mitchell-Malm.
“Dan Towriss is known to be a Herta enthusiast. Would be interesting to know what Cadillac and GM think, whether Herta is the kind of driver they would go for. Super licence issue is still outstanding, even though he had a very good season in IndyCar he’s still not automatically qualified for one,” said Mitchell-Malm.
“The best I can work out, I think he’s eight points short of qualifying because he’ll be applying for a super licence in 2025 which means he has to take the three years previous to the application which is 2023 and 2022, so he has 32 points from those three IndyCar seasons. So he’s going to need a few FP1 outings and top it up with whatever IndyCar result inside the top ten.”
The last time Colton Herta tried to get a seat on the F1 grid
Herta has previously applied for a superlicence in the 2022 season to race for Red Bull’s AlphaTauri to replace the outgoing Pierre Gasly.
At the end of the 2022 campaign, he only had 32 superlicence points and applied for special dispensation from the FIA, given the experience he had competing in IndyCar and being a runner-up in the Indy Lights title run in 2018.
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The argument put forward was that Herta would have had the necessary points if the grid numbers for the Indy Light season was bigger.
But the governing body rejected the application for exemption on the basis that he simply did not have enough points, with it seen as potentially opening up a loophole for drivers in the future.
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