Mario Andretti has insisted IndyCar driver Colton Herta remains a "priority" interest for Cadillac's Formula 1 entry.
The General Motors brand was finally accepted as a new F1 team for 2026 and beyond, albeit with a number of compromises to push over the line the previous Andretti Global guise had failed to earlier this year.
The driver line-up is already a talking point and Andretti - who is now a director on the board for GM's racing programme - revealed Herta was still at the top of the list.
“From the beginning of this project, the team always looked at the prospect of Colton Herta to be one of the drivers,” Andretti told Autosport.
“As far as I know, this is something we had not discussed lately because there's time, that still remains a priority.
"I'm sure that's the direction he would like to go. He trained there, he raced alongside the likes of, just to say one, Lando Norris, who is obviously very prominent now with McLaren and so, he is from that era, if you will, still, young and vibrant and ready to go.”
Herta had been linked to an F1 seat with Red Bull and its sister RB team [then AlphaTauri] but was prevented from making the switch due to a lack of FIA superlicense points.
The American needs 40 points across the three-year period preceding the application year - or the two-year period before in addition to points accumulated in the year of application.
Herta currently has 32 points across the past three seasons: 30 for finishing second in this year's IndyCar Series and one point for each of his 10th-place finishes in the two years prior.
That means he needs to finish at least fourth next season to gain the necessary points, or fifth if paired with an F1 practice session.
“Yeah, I think all those options are open, quite honestly,” Andretti said. “There's a way of finding that.
"I think the point system obviously, we need to be aware of what the demands are, but I think that's achievable even with him, obviously, having some better luck in IndyCar.
"I'm sure if he'd have won the championship this year, he would've been home free in that respect. Nevertheless, I don't think that's a thing of real concern. Honestly, I think that it's close enough that it's doable.”
