Formula 2’s long-awaited step onto North American soil this season was always going to be sold as a growth play — new markets, new eyeballs, new promoters with big ambitions. But in the paddock, the more interesting part has been how quickly the series has latched onto something it rarely gets to lean on: recognisable local names.
Colton Herta’s arrival from IndyCar has landed at exactly the right moment for F2, and CEO Bruno Michel isn’t shy about saying the American’s presence has made life easier in conversations with Miami and Montreal. When the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian rounds fell away and the calendar pivoted, F2 didn’t just need a logistical solution; it needed a story worth taking to a new audience. An established US race winner turning up in the junior formula ecosystem — and doing it with a very public Formula 1 ambition — is about as clean a hook as the category can ask for.
Michel, speaking to accredited media, described Herta and fellow American-linked driver Sebastian Montoya as an unexpected bonus for the North American promoters. Montoya, the son of seven-time grand prix winner Juan Pablo Montoya, was born in Miami and had already been on the grid. Herta, by contrast, has arrived with a bigger stateside profile and a reputation that precedes him.
“When we discussed with Miami and with Montreal, I told them, on top of that, we have some American drivers,” Michel explained. “Sebastian Montoya was with us already before, and Colton, who just arrived, but he’s a very established driver in America, IndyCar race winner.
“So it was definitely a plus for everybody… They took it a little bit as a surprise present, and that’s what it was.”
It’s a telling line. F2 doesn’t often get to offer “surprise presents” to anyone. More typically, it’s the other way around: a support series negotiating for space on the biggest stage in motorsport. But in Miami — with a home driver on the grid and a clear narrative for casual fans to latch onto — the series suddenly had an extra chip to play.
Herta’s own storyline is doing plenty of heavy lifting. He’s a nine-time IndyCar race winner who has decided, at a point when most drivers would double down on a successful career path, to take a risk on the European ladder. He’s joined Hitech for his rookie F2 campaign and, crucially, he’s also linked himself to Cadillac’s F1 project as a test driver. That relationship brings a hard-edged purpose to the move: Herta is set to take part in four FP1 sessions during 2026, beginning in Barcelona, and Cadillac has tasked him with delivering a top-10 finish in the F2 standings.
So far, it’s been steady rather than spectacular — which, given the context, is hardly a problem. Two feature races into the season, Herta has points on the board in both: seventh in Melbourne and eighth in Miami, leaving him 13th in the standings on 10 points. For a driver adapting to a new car, a new tyre, a new weekend format and a very different brand of opponent, that’s the kind of base you can build on.
Because this is the part that gets lost when fans look at the raw result and ask why an IndyCar winner isn’t immediately wiping the floor with teenagers: Formula 2 isn’t just another spec series. It’s a compressed, aggressive environment built around F1 weekends, with routines and pressures that drivers coming up through F3 have effectively been training for. The sprint race on Saturday, the feature on Sunday, the constant rhythm of set-piece sessions — it’s familiar to the kids, not to the guy who’s spent years in a different ecosystem.
Michel’s view is that Herta’s ceiling in this championship is higher than what we’ve seen in the opening rounds, and he’s backing him to make the adjustment.
“I really, really hope that he’s going to do well this year, and I’m very confident about it, because he’s a very, very strong driver. He’s a very talented driver,” Michel said. “Now, coming from Indy to F2, is different. It’s not the same environment. It’s not the same format of the weekends. Not the same cars. Not the same tyres.
“We’re working into the F1 environment to prepare drivers for Formula 1. And of course, it’s something that is quite different… he’s learning now, because he’s racing with young guys, 18, 19, 20-year-old young guys coming from Formula 3.
“I’m sure it’s a bit surprising, but he’s got the talent to do it. I have zero doubt about that. He needs a bit of time to get used to the championship, into the format. That’s for sure.”
There’s also an undercurrent here about what F2 wants to be in 2026. The championship has never been short of talent, but it is increasingly conscious of its global footprint — and how it sells itself to markets that don’t automatically follow the feeder series. The North American swing is a visibility boost, and Herta is a visibility boost within that boost: a driver who can pull in IndyCar fans, US media attention, and Cadillac-curious F1 followers all at once.
Asked whether Herta’s jump has sparked broader interest from American drivers, Michel was realistic — and, in his way, quite blunt. Drivers are a team business, he said, and the market for seats is healthy. Teams aren’t struggling to fill their line-ups, particularly with funded drivers, which remains a key pillar of the category’s economy.
But he did make one point that matters. If Herta can turn a solid opening into a genuinely strong rookie season, it won’t just help his own Cadillac ambitions — it’ll give F2 a rare case study it can point to when it tries to convince the next established driver from another discipline that this route is worth the gamble.
For now, the next stop is Montreal, another chance for Herta to operate with a supportive backdrop and another weekend where F2 can sell itself as more than just the undercard. The American experiment is already paying off at the gate. Whether it pays off in the points table will decide how loud this particular story gets as the season wears on.
