Colton Herta Clears F1 Super Licence Bar in Sao Paulo as Valtteri Bottas Responds

One point. That was all that stood between Colton Herta and a Formula 1 race seat, and it took six practice sessions, a hydraulic failure and an error in an old IndyCar standings table to get it. On Friday at Interlagos, the Cadillac test driver finally banked it.

Herta took over Sergio Perez's car for first practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on Nov. 6 and covered the 100 kilometers a driver needs to earn a Super Licence point from an FP1 outing. That lifted him to the 40 points required for a first application, and RacingNews365 reported him officially qualified (opens in a new tab) the same evening. The Race reported (opens in a new tab) that the FIA was satisfied with his running and would confirm his eligibility in due course.

The math that kept moving

Herta's total was built mostly in America. He earned 30 points for finishing second in the 2024 IndyCar championship, plus one from 2023 and four from 2025, according to RacingNews365. Cadillac then added one point for each completed FP1 outing in Barcelona, Austria, Austin and Mexico City.

Monza should have been another. A hydraulic problem stopped his car five laps into FP1 on Sept. 4, well short of the distance, Racer reported (opens in a new tab).

In Mexico City, Herta ran 30 laps when he needed 24, and the team believed the job was done. It was not. IndyCar's published 2025 standings had listed him sixth instead of seventh, which credited him with two more points than he had actually earned. The FIA confirmed he was still on 39, which is why Cadillac put him back in Perez's seat in Brazil.

Nervy laps at Interlagos

Herta needed 24 clean laps at a track he had never driven, and he got there with roughly seven minutes left in the session, per RacingNews365. He finished with 31 laps and was 20th with a best time of 1:14.275, according to Cadillac's practice report (opens in a new tab).

There was a scare along the way. When Audi's Freddie Slater stopped on track and brought out a red flag, Herta drove past the pit entry as the red panels lit up. The stewards took no further action, ruling that he had not had enough time to react and pit safely, Racer reported. A penalty there could have cost him the point.

The Race also noted that early lockups on the hard tires pushed Herta onto softs, and that his best lap was 0.904 seconds off Valtteri Bottas. Herta was unwell afterward and skipped his media duties, the team said.

"It's always a privilege to drive the car, and to be able to do it in three consecutive weekends was amazing," Herta said in the team's report.

Why Cadillac pushed so hard

Herta is 26, races in Formula 2 with Hitech and sits 19th in that championship. Cadillac's Marc Hynes did not pretend the season had been easy. "F2 is difficult," Hynes told The Race. "FP1 is a good opportunity to get some mileage, and he's got better every time."

Hynes also praised the decision behind it all. "It was a huge step to come to Europe chasing the F1 dream, and I hugely admire that," he said.

The Race noted the licence also keeps Herta a realistic option beyond 2027, since the points window rolls over three years.

Bottas: "I don't know"

The man with the most at stake weighed in this week. Bottas did not even start in Sao Paulo after a cross-threaded rear right wheel nut could not be removed before the laps to the grid, according to Cadillac (opens in a new tab). In comments published Nov. 11, Bottas sounded calm but not certain about Herta's breakthrough.

"Normally, nothing should change for the future," Bottas told RacingNews365 (opens in a new tab). "But there's obviously been good effort on giving him the super licence."

He added that he understood the urgency. "I can understand it; it's now or never for him to get the licence," Bottas said. "But for the future, I don't know."

That last line lands differently than his tone before the race weekend, when he said the team had told him it did not want to change anything. As our Nov. 5 report detailed, Perez is locked in through at least 2029, while Cadillac has not yet triggered the option on Bottas' contract for 2027.

What comes next

No 2027 lineup has been announced, but Cadillac now has a real choice. Bottas brings 10 Grand Prix wins and has had a brutal run of reliability, including a suspension failure in Mexico City and a non-start in Brazil, as covered in our Sao Paulo Grand Prix report. Herta brings an American name to an American team and, as of Friday, the paperwork to race.

With three races left in the season, as laid out in our championship standings breakdown, the decision may not wait long.

Sources: RacingNews365, The Race, Racer, Cadillac Formula 1 Team. More Formula 1 coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: Cadillac Formula 1 Team via X (file photo from February 2026, livery reveal).