American driver Colton Herta's wait for the superlicence he needs to race for Cadillac in Formula 1 next season will continue another week after a bizarre misunderstanding involving the team, the governing FIA and IndyCar's official website.

Herta and Cadillac arrived at the Mexico City Grand Prix believing he had 39 of the 40 superlicence points required under the regulations for any driver wanting to race in Formula 1, meaning his appearance in Friday's opening practice session would get him over the line.

However, Herta actually arrived with only 38 points, meaning he still needs to complete 100km of running in free practice in Brazil next week to reach the magic mark.

Sources have told ESPN that Herta is in line to replace the underperforming Valtteri Bottas next season, but that is on the assumption he gets the required points by the end of 2026.

Asked about the confusion after Friday practice, Herta said: "I don't know, I was under the impression coming into this weekend if I do this, I get the superlicence. So I guess we have to wait and see, I think I'm in the same boat as you guys.

"For me the biggest thing has been to not worry about that stuff and drive the car so that's kind of what I focused on because it has been a discussion in my career for a lot of years now."

Herta came into the season with 35 points based on his finishing positions over his previous three IndyCar seasons; 10th in 2023, second in 2024 and seventh in 2025.

Cadillac had hoped Herta would have gained enough points by competing in Formula 2 this season, but his season has been a nightmare, and he is no longer mathematically able to finish in the top 10 places which give superlicence points.

It means Herta and Cadillac have had to rely on accumulating the final five points required through appearances in free practice.

Herta had accumulated three with appearances in Barcelona, Budapest and in Austin last week -- an appearance in Monza in September did not last long enough to count.

However, Cadillac thought he had only needed four.

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The explanation for the misunderstanding lies in communication between Cadillac, the FIA and IndyCar -- more specifically, an error on IndyCar's official website regarding the 2025 championship standings.

When Cadillac approached the FIA in June to enquire about Herta's points, the governing body checked IndyCar's 2025 page and found Herta listed ahead of Felix Rosenquist in sixth, rather than his correct finishing position of seventh.

Herta and Rosenquist had finished 2025 tied on 372 points, but Rosenquist took sixth place on a tiebreak having finished one race in second position, when Herta's highest position had been third.

Sources have told ESPN the FIA checked the IndyCar website this week and saw that it had been amended to show Herta's position correctly as seventh, not sixth.

The FIA did not explain why it did not seek out more official documentation in doing its initial checks.

The governing body used an online resource, The Way Back Machine, to check that IndyCar's website had been amended earlier this week.

The same resource shows that Herta had been listed correctly as seventh until sometime around May this year, meaning the standings page was changed to put him incorrectly up to sixth position.

An IndyCar spokesperson told ESPN: "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."

It should be noted that IndyCar's end-of-season documents, which are made available to the media and appropriate bodies, had always correctly listed Herta in seventh, but these were not checked by the FIA.

Herta should still hit the magic 40-point mark by doing first practice in Brazil next Friday, but there's added jeopardy now should he crash out or hit an early mechanical failure.

Cadillac could still put him in an FP1 session in one of the final three races should that happen.

"I'll take it, yeah," Herta joked about the prospect of more practice time. "Any time I get in the car more. We'll see."

Cadillac has pressed on with its plans to promote Herta after extensive investment in his career to this point.

The American driver was signed to the team by Dan Towriss, chairman of the TWG Motorsport group which owns Cadillac.