Colton Herta Gets Penalty But Pulls Out of Racing Before It Could be Applied
· Yahoo Sports
America’s F1 hopeful Colton Herta pulls out of the sprint F2 race in Madrid with illness, but it comes after the FIA penalised him to start from the pitlane.
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It is not going well for America’s F1 hopeful Herta at all in the FIA Formula 2 (F2) Championship in 2026. Having taken a big step to move away from IndyCar in the hope of securing enough superlicence points to race in Formula 1, potentially with Cadillac, the season hasn’t gone his way at all.
Racing for Hitech GP, Herta is 17th with 26 points after 10 rounds, with a best result of fifth. The American is racing at F1’s new Madring circuit in Madrid on Spanish GP weekend. He started it well in fourth. He was doing well in qualifying in the Top 10 for the most part.
What Did Hitech GP Do for Penalty to Herta?
However, he dropped to 12th in the end after he suffered a crash at Turn 19 to end the session. Following the day’s run, just before Restricted Period One kicked in for F2 teams, Hitech GP found a problem with the American’s car, which they started to work on.
Since it was a priority, they continued working into Restricted Period One and therefore were in breach of Article 21.6a of the F2 regulations. The technical delegate reported the matter, and the stewards duly penalised him with a pitlane start in Madrid’s sprint race on Saturday.
The team accepted the penalty but noted that since they found the problem late in the day, they worked to fix it and missed the deadline to alert the FIA about it. With the penalty applied, Herta was relegated to a pitlane start, but before he could serve it, the team announced his withdrawal.
Herta Pulls Out Before Penalty Could Be Applied
Hitech GP shared a small statement citing illness as the reason for his withdrawal. “Colton Herta has withdrawn from today’s Formula 2 Sprint Race in Madrid after feeling unwell,” it said. It remains to be seen if he competes in the feature race on Sunday and if he gets to start from P12.