Michael Andretti says he would not stand in Colton Herta’s way in the event of a leading Formula 1 team enquiring about his potential availability.
Herta’s stock continues to rise after the 21-year-old claimed his fourth IndyCar win at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on Sunday.
Herta was the top-placed Andretti driver in the 2020 IndyCar standings and has already emerged as a regular front-runner despite having just 34 races under his belt.
“From a selfish standpoint, I’m hoping he drives for me for many, many, many years,” Andretti told RACER. “But then again, I don’t want to stand in his way.”
“If a team like Ferrari calls him, I’m not going to stand in his way on it.
“But if one of the teams in last or second to last position in the championship over there calls, then I might say, ‘Yeah, I’d want to keep you here.’ ”
The 1991 CART champion understands the lure of F1 after getting the opportunity to race with McLaren in 1993 and would help guide the youngster in the right direction.
“I’d be doing him a favour by keeping him out of those teams,” he added. “I know a lot of those guys over there now and I would encourage it if it’s a good situation.”
Herta admits any interest in F1 would be hard to ignore, but would only consider a serious offer which would offer him a pathway to work towards a front-running team.
“Any conversation about Formula 1, it doesn’t really do much for me, unless you’re putting pen to paper,” Herta added.
“There’s so, so many unknowns and stuff that never ends up happening. People can say that all they want, but the fact is, until it happens, it doesn’t mean anything.
“I would be interested, of course. I think it’s kind of unrealistic to be, and almost arrogant, in a way, to just say, ‘Well, I need to be in a top three team.’ I think you have to work for it.”
“Honestly, if I would get the call to go to Haas or something, it would be something I’d be interested in, but only if it was from a Ferrari-backed programme, and then I had the opportunity to move up,”
“I’m not going to go over there and sign a three-year deal just with Gene Haas, but I’d sign a deal with Ferrari, and if they put me in a car like that, I would drive it and try to get up to a top team.”
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