Cadillac F1 test driver Colton Herta reveals Formula 2 'wake-up call'

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Former IndyCar Series driver Colton Herta has revealed that the heavily restricted practice format in the Formula 2 championship has served as a 'wake-up call' as he adapts to life on the Formula 1 feeder series ladder.

The 26-year-old walked away from his successful career in IndyCar to pursue his dream of racing in F1. As he competes in F2 with Hitech, he also serves as a test driver for the Cadillac F1 team.

During an appearance on the F1 Beyond The Grid podcast, Herta explained that the F2 format came as a shock to him. In F2, drivers are given just a single free practice session before heading straight into a qualifying shootout.

"Yeah, it was [a wake-up call]. Especially if you throw the car in the wall in practice, like in Melbourne," the American driver said.

"Practice time is so, so important and when you have 40 minutes - not only do you have 40 minutes of it, you have one set of tyres. You can't do that many laps in 40 minutes, and then the added pressure is that you only have one set, so then you can do even less laps.

Colton Herta, Hitech

Colton Herta, Hitech

"So it's definitely like you've got to get up to speed quickly, need to learn fast. And that's the name of the game in Formula 2. If you can get to the weekend with your best foot forward, you're probably going to have a good weekend because there's very little time to catch up and recover. So that's the learning process of what it is."

Herta topped practice in front of his home crowd in Miami on 1 May with a time of 1m40.320s. He went on to qualify 14th and finished 15th in the sprint race. Herta currently sits 11th in the drivers' standings.

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