At Portugal's Autodromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimao, Colton Herta will be driving a McLaren MCL35M.
Follow Us
Colton Herta, who is 22 years old and has a strong IndyCar resume, has long been regarded as one of the top American candidates to transition to Formula 1. Herta became the youngest-ever winner of the IndyCar series at the Circuit of The Americas at the age of 18, and McLaren decided to give him the chance to drive one of their cars. Over the next three days, Herta will test alongside Will Stevens, a former Caterham and Marussia driver who is now McLaren’s F1 test and development driver.
Colton Herta will participate in McLaren’s Testing of Previous Cars programme over the coming days, giving the American his first chance to operate Formula 1 vehicles. At Portugal’s Autodromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimao, which has hosted two F1 races in the last two seasons, he will be driving a McLaren MCL35M built for the year 2021. This will prove to be an exciting opportunity for the young American driver who will be put into the Mclaren livery.
The Mclaren team boss Andreas Seidl is looking forward to Herta’s test in Portimao, and wants to see how well the young Indy driver does in an F1 car. “Colton is a proven talent in IndyCar and we will be interested to see how he adapts to a Formula 1 car. We believe this testing programme will provide him with valuable experience while demonstrating the benefit of expanding previous car testing to showcase promising drivers for the future.” said McLaren Team Principal Andreas Seidl.
Read more: Indian F2 driver Jehan Daruvala to test for Mclaren in the upcoming British GP
Herta isn’t the only driver to benefit from the Testing of Previous Cars restrictions, with Jehan Daruvala having a chance to drive the MCL35M at Silverstone a few weeks ago. During his two-day test, the Indian Formula 2 driver completed nearly 130 laps. McLaren previously gave IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward a chance to drive F1 equipment in last year’s Abu Dhabi Young Driver Test, while the team is yet to reveal who they want to run in their mandated pair of rookie FP1 outings this year.
