In May, McLaren announced that Herta, who has already won seven IndyCar races, would be part of the team’s testing program with the 2021 MCL35M car.
The team has revealed that the 22-year-old American will test at the Algarve International Circuit (Portimao) on Monday and Tuesday, with McLaren sim driver Will Stevens taking over on Wednesday for the final day of those tests.
Colton Herta will prepare to take part in a free practice session at a yet-to-be-confirmed grand prix this season, as teams are required to field a young driver in at least two FP1 sessions this year.
“As we have communicated, the agreement with Colton is that we want to give him the opportunity to run our Formula 1 car to show what he is really capable of doing in a car of this type,” Seidl said when asked by Motorsport.com about the car. objective of the Portimao test.
“Now we have the possibility to run a car that is a year old. The objective of the test is to see how it goes there and, as you know, this year we have to do a free practice session twice with a young driver.”
“And once we’ve tested all the candidates that we want to give a chance in an F1 car, we’ll decide who will contest those free practice sessions.”
“We’ll give Colton a chance for two days and then I guess we’ll also most likely field one or two of our sim drivers to make sure they also get a fresh impression of racing a McLaren car on track.”
Pato O’Ward, McLaren MCL35M
Herta promised to be one of the two drivers of Michael Andretti’s Formula 1 project, although that bet has stalled after the obstacles that some of the current teams on the grid have put up.
The Californian, who at 18 became the youngest winner in IndyCar history in 2019, has also been linked with a move to McLaren F1 in the future, as questions remain about Daniel’s long-term future. Ricciardo.
Ricciardo has a contract that binds him to the team for the 2023 season (he is among the highest paid in Formula 1), but that does not seem to guarantee the Australian will be on the track next year. And F1 wants an American driver on the grid…
Herta currently sits 10th in the 2022 IndyCar standings in the midst of a disappointing season for the Andretti team, taking just one win so far in May’s GMR Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Following the introduction of the TPC (Testing Past Cars) programme, F1 teams are allowed to test one-year-old cars as they are quite different from the new generation of F1 from 2022.
McLaren already gave Mexican Pato O’Ward, who competes in IndyCar for the Arrow McLaren SP team, a chance at last year’s young drivers test in Abu Dhabi.
