Norris - Herta 'on another level' ahead of F1 test

Colton Herta after his IndyCar win in St Petersburg — Photo: © LAT Images

McLaren

Norris - Herta 'on another level' ahead of F1 test

Herta confirmed he will test for McLaren later this year

Sam Hall

Friday 13 May 2022 17:10

Lando Norris has claimed IndyCar driver Colton Herta to be 'on another level' around high-speed corners with the American set to test for McLaren later this year.

Norris and Herta raced alongside each other at Carlin in the 2015 MSA Formula series, the championship now known as British F4.

"I grew up with Colton [from the] end of 2014-2015, my first season of single-seaters," explained Norris.

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"I mean, his nickname is Hooligan Herta because there's one place he was extremely strong and that’s high-speed corners.

"I feel like I'm decent, one of my strengths is pretty high-speed corners. But he was just like, another level in some sorts.

"He would quite often go off because of it and maybe not crash, but just go through the gravel and you know, we'd have to clean his car after because of how much dirt there was on it."

"[It's] nice to see him, from where we were back in 2014, 2015, to now me myself being in Formula 1 and of course him winning races and being one of the stars in IndyCar so yeah, hooligans."

F1 a "serious ambition" for Herta

Herta's IndyCar rival Alexander Rossi is the last American driver to have competed in F1 with his final outing coming at the 2015 Brazilian Grand Prix.

With the sport's rapid rise in popularity in the United States, however, there is a growing focus on who will be the next American to enter the championship.

Although a date has not been announced for Herta's outing, the driver confirmed he knows when he will get behind the wheel on the F1 Nation podcast.

“I probably could [reveal the date] but I don’t know, I might get in trouble, so I’m not going to," said Herta.

"But it is going to be later in the year. I can say I’m going in June to Woking for a seat fit and then some simulator stuff."

The six-time IndyCar race winner added: “It [F1] is a serious ambition of mine.

“There’s a lot of things that, you know, when I am done racing, I want to be able to say that I did and Formula 1 is pretty high on the list for one of those things.

"I wanted to get to IndyCar, I wanted to get to the Indy 500, I still want to win the Indy 500 obviously, which I haven’t done yet.

“There’s a big list of different races, events, series that I want to be a part of, and Formula 1 is definitely higher up on the list than a lot of things.”