Former IndyCar star and F1 hopeful Colton Herta says he almost signed for Red Bull’s sister team Alpha Tauri (now Racing Bulls).

Herta completed the switch from American open wheel racing to Formula 2 this year, in a bid to acquire the five extra FIA super licence points he needs to make his F1 dream a reality.

The 26-year-old also signed as new team Cadillac’s test driver for 2026 and will make four FP1 appearances this season, starting at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix in June.

While a driver needs 40 super licence points to compete in F1 full-time, young drivers can obtain a free practice only super licence which they can get with 25 points.

This means, being on 35 super licence points, Herta is eligible to take part in FP1 sessions this year.

READ MORE: Verstappen carries out crucial Red Bull experiment at Silverstone ahead of Miami GP

How Herta nearly signed for Red Bull

During a recent appearance on the Beyond the Grid podcast, Herta was asked about the time he nearly signed an F1 contract. Host Tom Clarkson referred to a period in the paddock when they were all led to believe that Herta had signed for Alpha Tauri (now Racing Bulls).

The Alpha Tauri squad was and remains owned by Red Bull, with their former advisor Dr Helmut Marko responsible for signing drivers and was in frequent contact with Herta during this period.

When asked how being on the precipice of signing an F1 contract felt for Herta, he responded: “I really liked the straightforward-ness of dealing with Dr Marko. Sometimes it hurts as a driver, you don’t want to hear some things but sometimes you need to hear them.

“But the good thing about all of that is he’s very straightforward on the possibility of it. One day it was 80 per cent and the next day it’s 40 per cent, we clawed back some so maybe 60.

“There was a very real possibility that I had a contract from them, I was just unable to sign because I didn’t have a super licence. And they were feeling really good at a point that they thought it was going to happen, and then they weren’t sure and eventually I couldn’t really wait too much more.

“I had to sign a new deal in IndyCar, Michael [Andretti] and Dan [Towriss] were very gracious to have me back in IndyCar and so I signed with them, which ended up being the right thing because I would have had no Formula 1 and no IndyCar seat. I don’t know what I would have done then.

“It was a very strange time, it was always day-to-day, it was so hard. Even for me, looking at the reports and thinking ‘man, these people think it’s going to happen, maybe it’ll happen’. And then you call Dr Marko and he’s like ‘well, don’t be so sure and maybe this stuff can happen’.

“I was very gracious at the time of everybody, being able to go into the Red Bull sim. Being able to talk to Dr Marko about the possibility of Formula 1. And a lot of people took a lot of time out of their days to point me in the right direction and help me out.”

READ MORE: Verstappen to leave Red Bull BEFORE Lambiase

Related

An F1 icon has shed light on exactly why things didn’t work out between him and a future champion during their time together at Mercedes.

Jock Clear is a renowned British F1 engineer who is able to boast working with some of the sport’s biggest names, including two seven-time champions.

Clear worked as Lewis Hamilton‘s senior performance engineer between 2013 and 2014, having just come off the back of working with Michael Schumacher through the twilight of his career with the Silver Arrows.

Though the Brit speaks highly of both legends, he hasn’t been shy of sharing the difficulties he encountered when paired up with future drivers’ champion Nico Rosberg in 2010.

F1 HEADLINES: Hamilton gets new Ferrari upgrades, Verstappen told to leave Red Bull

Clear on Rosberg: ‘We just didn’t click’

Clear was tasked with guiding Rosberg through his first season with the newly transformed Mercedes outfit as his race engineer, with the Brackley-based squad’s first campaign after Mercedes’ acquisition of Brawn a tough one for both parties.

You wouldn’t know it on paper given that Rosberg managed to outperform F1 legend Schumacher during his first season racing alongside one of the sport’s greats, but Clear and Rosberg did not get on.

In a recent appearance on Peter Windsor’s YouTube F1 Livestream, Clear delved into his tricky relationship with Rosberg, highlighting what it was about the German-Finnish racer that rubbed him up the wrong way.

“It just didn’t click, we just didn’t click,” Clear said about working with Rosberg during the 2010 season.

“I really value the relationship that I have with my driver, and it needs to be right, it’s a sporting environment and you need to understand each other, and Nico and I just didn’t understand each other at all, we just didn’t have any synergy.”

Further detailing the fallout of his position alongside Rosberg, Clear told F1 journalist Windsor that as soon as Schumacher heard the news that Rosberg would no longer be using the Brit as his engineer for 2011, the seven-time champion said: “Well if Nico doesn’t want him I’ll have him.”

Rosberg was instead reunited with Tony Ross who he had worked well with at Williams, with the German benefitting from the Mercedes reshuffle for the 2011 championship.

Rosberg’s long-term engineering partner then stayed with the German right until the end of his career in 2016, with the pair finally achieving a stunning championship victory over Hamilton in what would go on to be Rosberg’s final season in the sport.

READ MORE: Hamilton reflects on huge F1 mistake: ‘That was an absolute disaster’

Related

The childhood home of McLaren F1 star Oscar Piastri is available for you to buy, if you have a spare $6.5million lying around.

Piastri has become somewhat of an Australian superstar, taking over the Aussie mantle from Daniel Ricciardo, who retired in 2024 having been replaced by Piastri at McLaren in 2022.

But despite having claimed nine grand prix victories so far across his career, Piastri has not had much success at his home race in Melbourne, Australia.

The Aussie has not yet secured a podium in his home country, and the last two events went woefully wrong for him. Piastri spun in the wet during the 2025 event, going on to finish the race down in ninth, while 2026 saw him crash out before he had even managed to start the race.

And after that disastrous moment, it is understood that Piastri went back to his family home in Melbourne, Victoria to relax and unwind.

Piastri grew up in the glitzy Brighton suburb of the city in a house that, according to RealEstate.com, was sold in 2009 for $1.27million, when Piastri was just nine years old.

It is owned by one Nicole Piastri, Oscar’s mother, and has been lived in by Oscar and his sisters Hattie, Mae and Edie as they grew up.

Now, following some renovations, the Melbourne-based property is up for sale with Nick Johnstone Real Estate, for $6.5million.

REVEALED: Who are F1’s richest team?

What do you get for your $6.5million?

The Piastri family home is a six-bedroom house with a pool outside that has been installed by the current owners.

Said pool also has a stunning water feature, making it an incredible place to unwind after a tough F1 race – or just a tough day in work if you’e a normal person.

It has a home office which is complete with a ‘waiting area’ not too dissimilar from a doctor’s waiting room, but cool nonetheless.

The house also has a home theatre, the norm these days for people with mega expensive houses, while a car garage in the basement has room for six cars and a turntable.

To make things even better, the house is close to the Brighton Public Golf Course and is a short trip away from Brighton Beach and local train stations which will take you into the centre of Melbourne.

F1 DRIVER SALARIES: F1 driver salaries: What stars including Hamilton and Verstappen earn

Related