Oscar Piastri advice shows Colton Herta’s huge IndyCar exit was right call

Colton Herta has made the huge decision to quit IndyCar and go all in on his Cadillac F1 dream, which will involve a 2026 move to Formula 2, balancing that with his Cadillac F1 test driver role.

Current F1 World Championship leader Oscar Piastri knows a thing or two about that experience, having tested extensively for Alpine and McLaren while hoovering up junior titles. But, Piastri warned that testing has its limitations, with competing in an F1 weekend category “important” for driver development. Herta therefore has made the right decision.

Oscar Piastri experience validates Colton Herta decision

Piastri, as the Formula 3 Champion, covered over 300 miles of the Bahrain International Circuit in the Renault R.S.18. The following year, he drove that car again at Silverstone and Monza, won the F2 title, and manned the Alpine A521 in the Abu Dhabi post-season Young Drivers’ Test. Piastri’s 2022 schedule featured various test sessions in the A521 and McLaren machinery.

So, with Herta having signed up as Cadillac F1’s first test driver, while the 25-year-old American will line-up in F2 next season, Piastri was the perfect driver to ask which side of the coin matters most. Is racing on the widely accepted junior ladder to F1 more important for breaking into the sport, or conducting test sessions in F1 cars?

Piastri believes both have value, though he pointed to various limitations that come with testing. Herta, therefore, is giving himself the best opportunity by signing up for F2.

“I mean, both have kind of different purposes in some ways,” Piastri told PlanetF1.com’s Thomas Maher and other media outlets, on the junior racing versus testing debate.

“I think being on an F1 weekend, racing alongside F1, that’s an important thing. His situation is a little bit different, because he’s obviously the Cadillac test driver already, so it’s not so much about getting yourself in front of the paddock and in front of eyeballs.

“But, you know, I think definitely being on an F1 weekend, feels quite different to the racing I did before I was on an F1 weekend. So I think that’s definitely important.

More on Cadillac F1 from PlanetF1.com

👉 How Cadillac completed the Italian Grand Prix without even being on the grid

👉 Cadillac F1: Everything you need to know about the new 11th team

“The F1 testing, obviously getting up to speed in an F1 car is an important thing, but that testing, it has a limit to its uses. The tyres are not representative. You’re often doing it in winter, or at times when the tracks are not that rubbered in. There’s other cars around. The cars are old. There’s a lot of kind of limits to it.

“But certainly, getting up to speed in an F1 car, you know, just kind of getting your brain used to all the different things you can change, and the speed of which things happen… I’m sure he’ll be fine coming from Indy, but there’s definitely kind of purposes for both.”

As for their race drivers, Cadillac F1 confirmed veteran duo Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez as their first line-up. They boast 16 grand prix wins between them, 10 for Bottas and six for Perez.

Read next: It’s time for Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris to be selfish