Colton Herta took his biggest leap yet in his attempt to return an American to a seat in Formula One when the 22-year-old IndyCar driver finished two days of testing with McLaren on Tuesday over the Portuguese circuit at Portminao.
Herta spent much of the Day 1 getting up to speed in a year-old version of the F1 car before cutting it loose with a variety of tire compounds, setups and handling packages. He wound up making 162 laps covering roughly 750 kilometres while giving McLaren a good look at one of the best young prospects outside of the European feeder system.
Despite a popularity boom for F1 in the U.S., where there are soon to be three races on the schedule, there hasn't been an American driver on the grid since current IndyCar star Alexander Rossi departed in 2015."It's hard to get in a race car and not drive as fast you possibly can. That was the goal when I got over here: get acclimated, get up to speed and see what I could do in the race car," he said.
The next step for Herta and O'Ward could come later this year in the seat of a 2022 car during a free practice session at a grand prix weekend; the series returns to the U.S. in October for a race at Circuit of The Americas in Texas.
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