Herta to drive Bottas' Cadillac in Hungary practice
NXTbets Pro | Published On: July 23, 2026
Herta Practice Return
Colton Herta will make his second Formula 1 practice appearance of the season for Cadillac on Friday, driving Valtteri Bottas’ car in the opening session at the Hungarian Grand Prix. The run at the Hungaroring puts Herta back in the car after his first Friday appearance in Barcelona, where he stepped in for Sergio Perez. It also gives Cadillac another look at a driver it uses across several roles, since Herta serves as the team’s test, reserve and development driver. The Hungarian session keeps his schedule busy on two fronts. He is also racing in Formula 2 for Hitech, which adds more mileage and more demands on his time as he works through the season.
The outing matters for Cadillac because it extends Herta’s work on grand prix weekends and gives the team another chance to gather information. The Hungarian drive will mean he has now driven both of Cadillac’s cars on grand prix weekends, a useful marker for a driver who keeps moving between the simulator, reserve duties and race weekends. Herta said the session will give him more experience and help Cadillac’s development. That fits a team still chasing its first points after 10 rounds. Bottas’ 13th place in China remains Cadillac’s best result, and Perez came close to scoring the team’s first point in Monaco before a penalty dropped him to 15th. Bottas and Perez still each need to sit out one more practice session later in the season to complete Cadillac’s mandatory rookie running, so Friday’s work is part of a bigger season-long obligation as well as a development opportunity.
Cadillac Rookie Running
Cadillac’s practice plan has become part of the story of its first season. Herta’s appearance in Hungary gives the team another data point while it works through its rookie running requirements and searches for cleaner weekends. The team has already used Bottas and Perez in a mix of race and practice sessions, and Herta has helped fill in the development plan when needed. His Barcelona run came with Perez’s car, and the Hungarian session now sends him into Bottas’ machine, which is another sign of how Cadillac is spreading track time across its driver pool.
The broader picture for Cadillac is still defined by the points column. After 10 rounds, the team has yet to score. Bottas’ run to 13th in China stands as the best finish so far, while Perez’s Monaco drive showed how close the team has come without getting on the board. He looked set to deliver Cadillac’s first point before the penalty pushed him back to 15th. That leaves the Hungarian practice session with a clear purpose. It is part of the development push, part of the rookie-running plan and part of the effort to keep building experience across the line-up. Herta’s role sits at the center of that work, and his Friday run adds another chapter to Cadillac’s first-year program.
Herta Formula 2
Herta’s Cadillac work comes alongside a Formula 2 campaign with Hitech that has produced steady seat time but no breakthrough result yet. He has not won a race, scored a podium or taken pole position in the 2026 FIA Formula 2 season. His best finish is fifth in the Barcelona sprint race. By mid-to-late July, he is sitting around 13th to 17th in the standings with roughly 20 to 26 points. Those numbers show a driver still searching for a stronger run of results as the season moves into its second half.
That push matters because Herta needs more consistent pace and stronger results to improve his chances of earning a full-time Formula 1 seat with Cadillac. The Hungarian practice outing gives him another chance to build that case in front of the team while he continues to balance his junior formula program with reserve and development duties. He has already shown he can step into Cadillac’s grand prix weekend plans on short notice, and Friday’s session offers another chance to add mileage in an F1 car. The task is clear. Herta has to keep building experience, keep tightening his pace and keep delivering cleaner results in Formula 2 if he wants to move closer to a permanent place on Cadillac’s Formula 1 roster.
