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Colton Herta set for first official F1 session in the US at Austin

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Herta is set to replace Sergio Perez in Cadillac’s FP1 session at Austin, marking his fourth outing for the team and his first official F1 session in the United States.

From the GPBeat newsroomPublished · 19 Oct 2026, 22:12 · 1 min

Cadillac reserve driver Colton Herta is set to take Sergio Perez’s place in the team’s first practice session at this weekend’s United States Grand Prix in Austin. It will be Herta’s fourth FP1 outing for Cadillac and his first official F1 session in the United States.

His previous FP1 outings for Cadillac came in Barcelona, Hungary and Italy. The Austin appearance will make Herta the first American to drive in an official F1 session in the United States since Logan Sargeant in 2023. Sargeant finished 10th for Williams that year and scored his only F1 point.

Herta won his first IndyCar race at Austin in 2019 for Harding Steinbrenner Racing. He said driving an F1 car at COTA in front of American fans would be special, and that stepping into one on the same layout feels like “coming full circle”.

Herta says his aim for Friday morning is to complete the test programme cleanly, help engineers gather data on the setup and hand the car back to Perez with useful feedback for the team for the rest of the weekend.

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