Colton Herta says Cadillac need to see value in his FP1 outings

Cadillac signed Herta as their test driver ahead of their debut as the American racer joined the F2 grid with Hitech with an eventual plan to join the top flight with the 11th F1 team.

In another step towards that goal, Cadillac announced that they will hand Herta a drive in FP1 for the upcoming weekend in Barcelona, with more sessions planned for the rest of the season.

Commenting on his FP1 outings Herta told Formula 1's Official Website: “You want to be fast in any car you drive, and this isn't going to be any different, so it's going to be taken very seriously on my part.

“But I think the biggest goal is they [Cadillac] need to see value in me doing it. The team needs to see value, and they need to come out of it positively. It can't all just be about me and how fast I want to go," he explained.

As part of his preparation for his FP1 outings, Herta will be spending more time in the team's simulator. He also admitted that he doesn't know what to expect from the Cadillac MAC-26.

He said: “I think the SIM program is going to ramp up from here pretty soon in preparation for these FP1s. But, when I had driven it, the car hadn't even done a winter test yet.

“So it was very early on, and it was a pretty big guessing game. But from the feedback that I've seen from Checo [Perez] and Valtteri [Bottas], it seems like the guessing was pretty accurate as far as the mechanical and engine side.

“I think it was positive. I think I'll get my next taste in the next few weeks and have a better understanding where I need to be at before I get in the real thing.”

Herta is no stranger to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya after taking part in the F2 pre-season test there and believes this recent experience will prove useful when he does the FP1 session with Cadillac.

“It's a track that we're all super familiar with," he said of the Spanish track. "I know when I was over here racing in F3 and F4, it's a hot spot for winter testing in the junior categories, although the track has changed quite a bit since then.

“It's going to help having that experience and the knowledge of, hey, this is where this bump is, or, you know, maybe this is a kerb that you can take or can't take.

"So having that little bit of that knowledge from the F2 testing, it's going to be helpful for sure," Herta concluded.