Cadillac will hand test driver Colton Herta a second FP1 outing of the season at this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix, the American taking Valtteri Bottas's MAC-26 for the opening hour at the Hungaroring. It is the latest step in a slow-burn programme that has quietly become one of the season's more scrutinised sub-plots.
Herta, who is running a Formula 2 campaign with Hitech under Cadillac's backing, made his first practice appearance in Sergio Perez's car in Barcelona. He was careful to frame Friday's run as a development job rather than an audition.
"It's very exciting to get another chance in FP1," Herta said. "It's a good opportunity for my personal experience, but the ultimate goal is, of course, to help the team with its development. It's been six weeks since I was last in the car, and there's been a lot of evolution in that time."
His brief, he added, is split. "My job is to help the race drivers have the best possible Hungarian Grand Prix — but also provide the feedback that will aid the team in its long-term development aims and give me a better baseline in future sessions."
Every Herta appearance feeds the same speculation: that he is being lined up to replace Bottas at F1's newest team. Bottas, a 10-time Grand Prix winner signed to a multi-year deal, has been dismissive. Asked what he thought the rumours were for, he offered a short answer.
"Headline and clicks, that's my theory," Bottas told media including Crash.net. He said the noise did not rattle him: "I know my situation, the team knows my situation and they support me 100 percent."
Team principal Graeme Lowdon has been blunter still. "There is no foundation of truth in any of the rumours at all," he said. "I'll make it really, really clear factually, they're completely incorrect. There's no basis of truth whatsoever in any of them."
Lowdon also pointed to a rule that makes the swap a non-starter in the short term: Herta does not yet hold enough superlicence points to race in F1. "Colton doesn't have any super license points, and to some extent, that probably says it all about the quality of some of the rumours," he said. To qualify for a 2027 seat, Herta would need to finish his F2 season inside the top eight.
Lowdon's wider argument is that a start-up asks more of its drivers than an established team does. "With all due respect, the outside world doesn't know what we're asking these drivers to do," he said, insisting both Bottas and Perez are "doing way more than drivers in some other teams" while the operation is being built mid-season around them.
For now the arrangement is settled: Herta banks mileage and data on Fridays, Bottas and Perez race. On the evidence of Budapest, that split holds at least until the summer break.
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