Herta makes F1 grand prix weekend debut for Cadillac in Barcelona FP1

Colton Herta made his first Formula 1 grand prix weekend appearance on Friday, taking over Sergio Perez’s Cadillac MAC-26 for first practice at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The 26-year-old Californian completed 27 laps, setting the 21st and slowest time of the session, before handing the car back to Perez for the remainder of the weekend.

Herta’s primary task was not to chase lap times but to leave the car in a workable set-up window for Perez — a role he says he embraced fully. “It was very enjoyable,” Herta said. “I think we got done what we wanted to get done, which was good. Hopefully I provided some good data for them to look at. It means a lot to me, especially having a Cadillac badge as an American. I definitely felt very proud today.”

The outing is the first of four planned FP1 appearances for Herta this season. F1 regulations require teams to hand four first free practice sessions per year to a rookie driver — two per car — and Cadillac has designated Herta for all four as part of his preparation for a potential full-time F1 career. As the team’s official test driver, he has also been working through sessions at GM’s simulator facility in Charlotte ahead of each track appearance.

Despite having conducted sporadic F1 tests in the past, Herta said the raw pace of a current car still caught him off guard. “I think whenever anybody talks about a Formula 1 car in a push lap, it’s just the outright speed of it that’s the most impressive part,” he said. “The braking, the acceleration, the cornering. Every part of it is just faster than anything I’ve done, so it’s very impressive.”

Beyond the physical demands, Herta highlighted how much the operational complexity of an F1 weekend differed from anything in his previous experience. “Having an understanding of how things work is the most important thing,” he said. “There’s so much more to look at — so many more sensors, so much more development race to race. That’s all very new to me, and something that I’m trying to pick up on as fast as possible.”

Herta is balancing his Cadillac test duties with a Formula 2 campaign alongside Hitech. He entered the Barcelona weekend 13th in the F2 standings, having scored points on three occasions while adjusting to the European racing scene.