Herta, Andretti Autosport-Honda teammate Alexander Rossi and Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet’s Felix Rosenqvist lie eighth, ninth and 10th in the championship, just a point apart, and unable to break into the top seven.
After finishing seventh, third and fifth in his first three seasons in IndyCar and scoring six wins, Herta’s drop to eighth having added just one more victory to his tally is something the 22-year-old Californian admits is “pretty disappointing.”
Herta cites Long Beach, the Indy 500 and the second race on the Indy road course as the events that have left him languishing by his standards.
At Long Beach, after taking pole, he was jumped by a couple of cars in a pitstop sequence and crashed while running third. At Indy, an engine let go on his qualifying run and by the time he got a second attempt, the track conditions were less than ideal. Then, after landing only 25th on the grid, he suffered a shunt in Carb Day practice that turned him upside down and turned his chances of raceday progress to ashes. There was no more track time to set up and fine-tune the car before the race, and on Lap 129 he felt forced to retire his car, which had become viciously loose, so he was classified a mere 30th.
And then in July, on the IMS road course, he was leading – up from 16th on the grid – when another mechanical gremlin struck him out.
Herta told Motorsport.com: “At Indy [500], after the first engine let go, we didn’t have a chance to go through the conditioning process and get the new engine’s settings back where we wanted them, so that may have had a lot to do with why we weren’t good in qualifying.
“Long Beach was obviously somewhere I totally messed up, could have had a podium there. And then in the second race on the Indy road course, I think I had it, maybe Alex [Rossi] would have caught me, but whatever, between us we had the fastest cars in the place.
“So that’s three races where we finished almost dead last, and one of them is worth double-points. It was heartbreaking for the points situation.”
Herta denied that these significant lost opportunities were made any worse by knowing that his IndyCar championship position counts toward points for an FIA Superlicense that would allow him to race in F1.
“No, I was never focused on that, feeling I need maximum IndyCar points to earn Superlicense points,” he stated. “I felt that thinking like that would hurt in the long run. I was just disappointed with how things went for us, whether it was in my control or out of my control.
“It was just hurtful that week after week the team gave us good cars, usually, and we didn’t or couldn’t maximize our opportunities. It was sad for all of us.”
Herta said that street tracks remain Andretti Autosport’s strength but he has been pleasantly surprised by progress on purpose-built road courses.
“For sure, street courses are where we’re best,” he said, “but we’ve kind of switched it up on some of the road courses at some places, haven’t we?
“Like, I thought we were really good at Indy GP course this year, where I don’t think we’ve had that strong cars in the past – podium contenders maybe, but not stand-out race-winning cars. But this year, we were genuinely strong there – we were good in May, and like I say, I think me and Alex had the best cars in the summer race. So that was a nice surprise.
“But generally, when you’re talking types of track, it’s still the street courses where we expect to do well, that we really seem to have dialed in.”
One road course where he is expected to shine is WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, the setting for this weekend’s IndyCar season finale. Since it returned to the schedule, there have been just two races there (in 2020 the event was canceled due to COVID-19 restrictions), and Herta has won both from pole position. But Herta, whose father Bryan was also exceptional in an Indy car around the classic undulating 2.238-mile course, admits he’s not clear why he’s quick there.
“I really don’t know what it is exactly,” he said thoughtfully. “It would be great for me to figure out so I could replicate it elsewhere! I don’t know if it’s one thing, or just one or two corners, or whether it’s a track that just gels well for me – a ‘feel’ type of thing, the grip level, the abrasive nature of the asphalt… But I’m not exactly sure.
“I remember people asking how we did it in 2019 and I did wonder if there was a certain corner where I was making up time on my teammates or whatever, but looking at the data before the 2021 race, I noticed it actually changed from session to session as to where I was finding time. So that’s what leads me to think that maybe it’s more about track grip, or something like that.”
That being the case, the fact that the track owners are due to resurface the track in November leaves Herta uncertain whether he would be able to maintain his stranglehold on the event, were he to remain in IndyCar next year. But he said the work is due.
“Yeah, I think they needed to do that,” he said. “The surface is very abrasive on tires, and you can see that when you walk it – the asphalt looks a little damaged or rougher than you’d see at most other tracks. So I think it was probably necessary to get the resurfacing done, and I’m happy that the county and the city and the track and everybody involved are willing to make that investment, because I know it’s not cheap to resurface a race track. And I’m sure with undulations like Laguna Seca has, it probably bumps up the cost even more!
“But yeah, I’m happy they’re doing it, it’s probably necessary. It’s best for the series and the track.”
Asked whether he and the Andretti Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian-Honda entry can replicate their last two performances at the track, Herta said, “There’s reason to believe we can, yeah.
“In IndyCar, you can come back to a track and teams that might have dominated there in the past just aren’t the same the next year,” he observed. “But we kind of proved that wrong fro 2019 to 2021, so I’m hoping we can do the same. And I really, really don’t want to end the year with just one win and one other podium. Bumping those figures up by one would mean a lot to me.”
If Herta remains in IndyCar, he will lose a friend as a teammate, namely Rossi, who is heading to Arrow McLaren SP.
“Alex really helped me out a lot when I first started in IndyCar,” said Herta by way of tribute. “He’s the kind of teammate you want – somebody who’s fast and gives you data that you can work with, see where you’re losing time, where you need to get better, but he’s also open and transparent setup-wise; he communicates what he’s thinking during the race weekend.”
Should Herta be able to transfer to F1, he said he has no specific suggestions for team-owner Michael Andretti regarding his replacement in the #26 car.
“Hmm, I’d not even thought about that, actually,” he chuckled. “I feel like there’s a lot of good IndyCar drivers, a lot of good would-be IndyCar drivers, from F2, sportscars… There are a lot of [IMSA] DPi drivers who would be strong. Obviously the cars are quite different, but the differences could be addressed. Look at a guy like Scott McLaughlin coming from touring cars and adjusting to IndyCar very quickly. So the best sportscar drivers should be able to do the same.
“If you’ve got talent, you’ve got talent, and there are a lot of good drivers in North America and Europe that would do a really good job in an IndyCar.”
