Herta admits missing Indy 500 'hurts' but F2 deserves full attention

Colton Herta admits it hurts that he is unable to race in this year’s Indianapolis 500 due to new additions to the Formula 2 calendar, but that his full-time category deserves to take priority in his schedule.

Formula 2’s second and third rounds of the season were due to take place in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia this month, but were postponed alongside the F1 events as a result of the war in the Middle East. The feeder series has managed to reorganize to race at the upcoming grands prix in Miami and Montreal, providing Herta with a home race but the latter round directly clashes with what was set to be an Indy 500 outing for the Californian.

“It's a little bit of an up and down reaction, but overall, I'm excited,” Herta told RACER. “It’s two new tracks for me, two tracks that I've watched on TV that look like a lot of fun and places that look like they're just a thrill to drive.

“So I'm excited on that front. Obviously, there’s a bit of me that hurts because you can't do the 500 now, but this is taking the forefront of what I'm doing. So, we knew that something like this would be possible, even though we didn't see it coming from this angle. But I'm excited for the new rounds, and I'm glad that F2 and Bruno Michel were able to find some sort of replacements for the missing two rounds.”

Having been made aware of the possibility of a Canadian round being added to the F2 calendar prior to last week’s confirmation, Herta says it was a clear decision that he wouldn’t skip a race for Hitech to compete at Indianapolis.

“I can't remember the first time I heard murmurings of it,” Herta said. “But I think when I when I heard about it legitimately was, I don't know, maybe the last few weeks. And then we were kind of trying to make backup plans: What’s this going to look like? How do we kind of protect ourselves? And what's the best course of action?

“Obviously, for me, it was pretty simple because F2 is my main focus this year, and that deserves the most attention for me, even though the Indy 500 is also super special to me.”

Herta’s switch to F2 has resulted in significant interest from IndyCar and American racing fans, and the newly-scheduled rounds mean his second race weekend will now take place on home soil. The visits to the United States and Canada mark the first time F2 – in its current form – will have raced in North America.

“I'm all for it,” he said. “It's an exciting thing that hopefully we can put on a great race, and hopefully it's a thing where maybe the promoters in the U.S. look at it as a necessary thing for the future and that F2 gets to go there more so in the future.

“But for me, it's huge because we get to come Stateside. And almost twice – we get to go up to our friends up north in Canada, which is also so close to the U.S. So it's special for me. It's something that I did not see coming this year. So for that aspect, I feel very lucky.”