Colton
Herta

Colton Herta was born on 30 March 2000 in Santa Clarita, United States. His father, Bryan Herta, also raced in IndyCar and Champ Car. Colton had been karting since the age of six and began competing in 2010. At 13 he moved into single-seaters and finished second in the SBF2000 Winter Series. He ended 2014 fifteenth in the US F2000 championship, then headed to Europe. In 2015 he took third in British MSA Formula with four wins, and in 2016 third in Euroformula Open with Carlin, with four wins and five pole positions. He also won a British F3 race at Brands Hatch. In 2017 he joined Steinbrenner Racing in Indy Lights, finishing third overall and taking Rookie of the Year. In 2018 he won four races there, including all three at Indianapolis, and finished second to his team-mate Patricio O'Ward.

He made his IndyCar debut at Sonoma in September 2018 for Harding Racing. In 2019 he won at the Circuit of the Americas aged 18, becoming the youngest winner in IndyCar history. Aged 19, he also became the youngest pole-sitter at Road America, added a win at Laguna Seca and finished seventh in the standings. In 2020 he took third in the championship. From 2021 he drove for Andretti Autosport and won three races that year (St. Petersburg, Laguna Seca, Long Beach). He finished fifth in the championship. In 2022 he won the GMR Grand Prix, and in 2023 he went without a win. In 2024 he won at Toronto and in the Nashville finale, his first victory on an oval, and was runner-up to Alex Palou. His final year with Andretti and in IndyCar was 2025. In sports cars he won the 2019 24 Hours of Daytona in the GTLM class in a BMW, the LMP2 class at Daytona in 2022 with DragonSpeed, and the 2024 12 Hours of Sebring outright in an Acura.

In 2022 he became a McLaren development driver and tested its 2021 car at Portimão in July. That year Red Bull showed interest in using him at AlphaTauri in 2023, but he lacked the points for a Super Licence and the FIA refused an exception. In 2025 Cadillac gave its race seats to Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas, as Herta missed the fourth place needed for a Super Licence. For 2026 he became Cadillac's test and development driver and moved into Formula 2 with Hitech. At the 2026 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix he replaced Pérez in first practice and finished the session 21st.

Source: Wikipedia, “Colton Herta”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.