Colton Herta still has a desire to compete in next year’s Indianapolis 500 despite recently confirming that he is leaving IndyCar to pursue a career in Formula 1.
After seven years racing in IndyCar, the 25-year-old has signed as a test driver for the yet-to-compete Cadillac Formula 1 Team starting next year.
Herta is slated to race in Cadillac’s IMSA program for the series’ 2026 endurance rounds and will also compete with Hitech in F2 for the full 2026 season, which will help him gain experience and super license points necessary to step into a full F1 driver role.
Even though his career path is taking him away from IndyCar, he still has a desire to run more Indianapolis 500 events if possible, as he recently confirmed on the Stickers & Send It vodcast.
“I would love to be back,” said Herta. “But I don’t know what’s on the cards, what’s available, and if I’ll be able to.
“I’m sure there will discussions about it because, for me, I love Indy so much.
“It doesn’t deserve to treat me any sort of way. Although it hasn’t been to kind to me so far and we’ve had some big ones [crashes] and not great results.
“It drives me even more, makes me even more hungry to come back. Yes, I hope I do get to come back. It’s always fun racing against Jack [Harvey], so I hope I get to do it again.”
Several obstacles could stand in the way of Herta running in next year’s Indy 500, not the least of which being that his most likely offer would be from Andretti, his former team which competes with Honda engines.
His new alignment with GM and Cadillac could pose a conflict of interest that would put a halt to any discussions of a one-off appearance.
If approvals were to be given, however, there are no race conflicts in IMSA or F2 for the weekend of May 24, the date of the 110th Indianapolis 500.
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