赫塔在奥斯汀主场驾驶凯迪拉克F1赛车，2027年前景未定
科尔顿·赫塔在2026年F2赛季表现不佳的背景下，于奥斯汀驾驶凯迪拉克F1赛车，回到他2019年首次赢得印地赛车分站冠军的赛道。
科尔顿·赫塔在2027年前景未定的情况下，享受奥斯汀“超级特别”的主场回归。
在2026年F2赛季表现不佳的背景下，科尔顿·赫塔在奥斯汀驾驶凯迪拉克F1赛车，回到他首次赢得印地赛车分站冠军的地方，享受了这一圆满时刻。
2019年3月24日，科尔顿·赫塔在美洲赛道成为印地赛车史上最年轻的比赛冠军，他带领小型车队Harding Steinbrenner Racing取得胜利，当时年仅18岁359天。
这是他在Andretti车队成功的印地赛车生涯的起点，尽管这位第二代车手始终未能获得年度冠军或印第安纳波利斯500胜利。
但当追逐F1梦想的迟来机会来敲门时，赫塔放弃了舒适的印地赛车席位，踏上与凯迪拉克一同探索未知的旅程——将练习赛和私人测试与F2的炼狱相衔接，以积累足够的欧洲经验和超级驾照积分。
后半段的发展并未完全按计划进行：赫塔仅积26分，排名第19位，处境艰难。他上一次为Hitech车队拿分还要追溯到夏休前的比利时站。
本赛季预计仍将以卡塔尔站和阿布扎比站收官，具体取决于中东地区的局势，这让这位加利福尼亚人留下了“问题多于答案”的感受。
“我只是对这一年来的进展感到失望。一点都不好，”这位26岁的车手说道。
这让赫塔和凯迪拉克不得不通过第一节练习赛（FP1）来争取更多超级驾照积分，最近一次是在美洲赛道（COTA）进行，巧合地给了赫塔一个圆满的时刻，因为他得以驾驶F1赛车绕行他取得印地赛车（IndyCar）突破性胜利的场地。
说周五的第一节练习赛是赫塔本赛季的高光时刻并不算夸张。因此，他把F2的挫败搁在一边，把对未来的疑虑放到另一边，尽情享受了这次机会。
“非常享受，”赫塔说。“能在主场、在主场观众面前、驾驶凯迪拉克做到这一点，感觉特别特别。我有一段时间没来这里了，距离印地赛车上次在这里比赛已经七年了，但变化不大，很高兴看到进步。”
回忆起2019年，他说：“基本上，一切就是从这里开始的。那是我在印地赛车的第三场比赛，我排在第三位发车，提前进站超越了别人，在黄旗上还沾了点运气。然后我在重新发车后上升到第一，大概还剩10圈，从那里一路领先。那是一段有趣的时光。那是一支小而能成的车队，哈丁·斯坦布伦纳（Harding Steinbrenner），我们从中拿到了两场胜利。”
虽然COTA多年来可能没有太大变化，但赫塔周五驾驶的凯迪拉克与老旧的DW12几乎没有相似之处。当被问及花了多长时间重新调整大脑时，赫塔说：“在印地赛车中，我们也用英尺作为刹车标记，所以在这方面有点不同，而且说实话，你到达的速度也相当不同。”
“但总的来说，线路非常相似。你接近赛道和攻击赛道的方式非常相似，但赛车感觉不同。我认为在驾驶方面，至少在低速[路段]，这与你需要做的以及如何最大化发挥非常接近。那里有一些相似之处，这有助于学习过程。”
赫塔在某种程度上是一个测试骡子，他驾驶MAC-26完成了21圈，获得第21名，落后领先者3.9秒，任务是进行空气动力学实验，这应该有助于车队确定2027年的发展方向。“他们让我做什么，我就做什么，”他说。“我们做了一些空气动力学测试，占用了半节练习时间，然后从那里我做了一次短跑和一次长跑。”
“每当你在车里时，总感觉速度太快了，一切都结束得太快，但一切都按计划进行。我们所有的时间安排都是正确的，所以我们按计划完成了测试，我很高兴。”
这场练习让赫塔处于国际汽联超级驾照的边缘。为了获得F1首秀所需的那张纸，他似乎永无止境的追求让他感到疲惫，这个话题早在2022年就出现过，当时红牛运营的AlphaTauri表示有兴趣给他一个席位。但他希望今年晚些时候再参加一次练习赛，最终能让他达到40分的门槛。
“说实话，我不知道自己处于什么位置，但我相信是这样，”他说。“这么多年来，我一直在思考这件事、担心这件事，以至于我让别人替我去做。”
赫塔在F2的挣扎最终预计不会成为决定他F1命运的关键因素。而且，在车队领队马尔钦·布德科夫斯基几乎没有消除人们对瓦尔特利·博塔斯与塞尔吉奥·佩雷斯搭档席位的疑虑时，赫塔仍然决心将他的F1使命坚持到底。
“我的目标仍然是在凯迪拉克、通用汽车、TWG的带领下尽快进入一级方程式，这就是我想去的地方。我专注于尽快来到这里，”赫塔坚定地说，同时也没有排除如果凯迪拉克决定再留博塔斯一年或选择冷门选项时他重返F2的可能性。
瓦尔特利·博塔斯，凯迪拉克车队，塞尔吉奥·佩雷斯，凯迪拉克车队
整整一年只能担任储备车手、远离赛场，这并不特别有吸引力。“百分之百，我希望能有某种安排，让我每年至少能几次坐进赛车参赛，”赫塔说道。
“对我来说，我正处在职业生涯中如此重要的阶段，开始步入那些黄金年华。我们都知道你不可能永远以职业车手身份参赛，尽管费尔南多[阿隆索，45岁]对此给出了很有力的反驳。
“这些年对我来说至关重要，我不想白白度过一年什么都不做。所以，我想参加某个赛事，无论那是部分赛程还是全职合同，或者别的什么形式。我想参与一项很酷、能在世界某地比赛的项目。我希望自己能尽快敲定我的参赛安排。”
英文原文
Colton Herta savours "super special" Austin homecoming as 2027 uncertainty remains
Amid a troubled 2026 F2 campaign, Colton Herta savoured his full circle moment driving Cadillac's F1 car at the scene of his maiden IndyCar win in Austin
On 24 March 2019, Colton Herta became the youngest ever IndyCar race winner at the Circuit of the Americas, taking the small Harding Steinbrenner Racing team to victory, aged just 18 years and 359 days old.
It was the start of a successful IndyCar career with Andretti, even if the title or Indianapolis 500 victory eluded the second-generation driver.
But when a late chance to pursue his Formula 1 dream came calling, Herta parked a comfortable IndyCar seat for a journey into the unknown with Cadillac - dovetailing practice sessions and private tests with the purgatory of Formula 2 to accrue enough European experience and superlicence points.
The latter part hasn't exactly gone to plan: Herta is languishing 19th with only 26 points. His last points haul with Hitech dates back to the Belgian round before the summer break.
The season, which is still expected to conclude with rounds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi depending on events in the Middle East, left the Californian with "a few more questions than answers".
"I'm just disappointed with how the year's gone. It's not been good at all," said the 26-year-old.
It left Herta and Cadillac scrambling for a few more superlicence points via FP1 sessions, the latest taking place at COTA and serendipitously handing Herta a full circle moment as he was able to drive an F1 car around the site of his breakthrough IndyCar win.
Suggesting Friday's FP1 was Herta's season highlight is not much of a stretch. So, with his F2 frustration parked to one side and his doubts over the future to another, he savoured the opportunity.
"It was very enjoyable," said Herta. "It felt super special to be able to do it here at home, in front of the home crowd, with the Cadillac. It's been a while since I've been here, seven years since IndyCar was here last, but it hasn't changed much, and it was nice to see progress.”
Reminiscing about 2019, he said: "This is where it all started, basically. It was my third start in IndyCar, and I started third, undercut people, got a little bit lucky with the yellows. And then I ended up first at the restart, like 10 laps to go, and led from there. It was a fun time. It was a little team that could, Harding Steinbrenner, and we got two wins out of it."
While COTA may not have changed much over the years, the Cadillac Herta drove on Friday bore little resemblance to the dated DW12. When asked how long it took to rewire his brain, Herta said: "In IndyCar we use feet for brake markers, too, so it's a little bit different in that aspect, and you're arriving at quite different speeds, to be honest.
"But generally, the lines are very similar. How you approach the track and attack it is very similar, but the car feels different. I think driving-wise, at least in the low-speed [sections], it's pretty close to what you need to do and how you need to maximise it. There are some similarities there that kind of help the process of learning."
Herta was somewhat of a test mule as he completed 21 laps aboard the MAC-26 to take 21st, 3.9s seconds off the lead, tasked with conducting aerodynamic experiments which should help the team with its development direction for 2027. "Whatever they tell me to do, I do it," he said. "We did some aero runs that ate up half of the session, and then from there I did one short run and then one long run.
"Whenever you're in the car, it always feels like it goes way too fast, and everything's over too quick, but everything went to plan. All our timings on everything were correct, so we got through the run planned like we wanted to, so I was happy."
The session left Herta on the cusp of an FIA superlicence. He has been left jaded by the seemingly endless pursuit of that piece of paper required for an F1 debut, a topic which arose as early as 2022 when Red Bull-run AlphaTauri showed interest in handing him a seat. But he is hopeful one more practice outing later this year will finally get him to the 40-point threshold.
"To be honest, I don't know where I'm at, but I believe so,” he said. “It's been so many years of thinking about it and worrying about it that I let other people do it for me."
Herta's F2 struggles are ultimately not expected to be the key factor deciding his F1 fate. And as team principal Marcin Budkowksi did little to dispel doubts over Valtteri Bottas' position in the seat alongside Sergio Perez, Herta is still determined to see his F1 mission through to the end.
"My goal is still to be in Formula 1 as soon as possible with Cadillac, with GM, with TWG and this is where I want to be. I'm focused on trying to get here as soon as possible," Herta was adamant, while also not ruling out an F2 return if Cadillac decides to retain Bottas for another year or settle for a left-field option.
Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac Racing, Sergio Perez, Cadillac Racing
A year on the sidelines, purely as a reserve driver, is not particularly appealing. "One hundred percent, I want to have some sort of programme where I can get in a race car a few times a year at the very least," Herta said.
"For me, I'm at such an important time in my career where I'm starting to get into those prime years. We all know you can't race professionally forever, even though Fernando [Alonso, 45] is putting up a good argument for it.
"These years are crucial to me, and I don't want to spend a year not doing something. So, I want to race in something, whether that looks like a partial or full-time deal or whatever it is. I want to be in something cool that races somewhere in the world. I'm hoping that I can figure out my programme soon."
Motorsport.com ·
内容来自公开信源，聚合内容版权归原作者与来源所有。