Colton Herta participated in back-to-back Grand Prix Free Practice 1 sessions in Austin and Mexico City, hoping to secure the final superlicense points to potentially move into Valtteri Bottas' Cadillac in 2027.

Cadillac has only confirmed Sergio Perez’s contract extension, as a driver change seems imminent for Bottas ride.

The problem is that, at the start of Herta’s 2026 F2 campaign, the FIA noted he had 35 points toward his license from his last three years of IndyCar competition; at some point, this number was upped to 36 when he truly had 35. A misprint on the IndyCar website had Herta finishing sixth in the championship instead of seventh in 2025. Herta was projected to finish sixth last year, but Felix Rosenqvist's late-season push brought him to sixth in the points instead.

“There was an anomaly in the website database display, which was caught this week and now reflects the official standings as they were published Aug. 31, 2025,” IndyCar said in a statement.

The championship finishes were shown in error at some point over the spring when the FIA did it’s fact-checking and did not look into it again until this weekend, with the 40-point goal in sight.

The FIA used ‘The Way Back Machine’, an online resource to help figure out how they got the math wrong. It showed that the championship standings were changed incorrectly at one point during the summer, but they were correct at the start of the year.

“Obviously, we were still doing our meetings and whatnot, so I haven't talked to anybody about it,” Herta told media in Mexico City. “As far as I was concerned, going into the weekend, if I did 100km here, I would have 40.”

Herta has struggled in F2, so his only points this year have come from practice sessions. All F1 teams must put rookies in at least four practice sessions over the course of the season. Cadillac has already used one extra session to help Herta reach the superlicence goal, and his Monza run this September wasn't long enough to count for a point. Cadillac must run Herta in one more free practice before the year’s end. Next weekend in Brazil is an easy option, with a lack of support races.