IndyCar race-winner Colton Herta is making an uncommon profession change for 2026 by leaving America’s prime single-seater sequence to race in Method 2.
With seven seasons of IndyCar racing beneath his belt, he has considerably extra expertise at this degree than these he’ll go up in opposition to. Herta will flip 26 years outdated in the identical month as subsequent yr’s Method 2 season-opener, which means he’s additionally fairly a bit older than a typical F2 driver.
However his workforce mate is just not one in every of them. Ritomo Miyata is already 26, which implies their Hitech workforce has an unusually mature driver line-up amongst its Method 2 rivals.
It’s not unusual for F1 groups to advertise some drivers who’re youthful than these racing in F2. However Hitech’s 2026 line-up is a very uncommon case.
Miyata is older than 10 drivers who will contest the 2026 F1 season, together with the world champion Lando Norris. Herta is older than eight of these already in F1.
5 F1 groups could have driver line-ups that are older, on common, than Hitech’s F2 duo. These embrace reigning champions McLaren plus 2025 race-winners Purple Bull and Mercedes.
Each Racing Bulls drivers are youthful than every of the Hitech racers, regardless of each of them having raced in Method 2 earlier than. Haas additionally has a youthful driver line-up, on common, than the Hitech pair:
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Herta grew to become the youngest driver to win an IndyCar race together with his victory on the Circuit of the Americas in 2019, when he was 18 years outdated. Regardless of successful 9 occasions within the sequence and putting second within the championship final yr he was unable to gather sufficient FIA superlicence factors to qualify to race in F1.
After Herta confirmed his transfer into F2, the FIA introduced it can improve the variety of superlicence factors it awards to IndyCar drivers from 2026. Herta may even function a check driver for brand spanking new workforce Cadillac subsequent yr as he hopes to race for the workforce in 2027. The newcomers could have the oldest line-up on the F1 grid subsequent yr.
F1 drivers’ ages on the first race of 2026
Rank
Driver
Staff
Age at first race
1
Arvid Lindblad
Racing Bulls
18 years, 217 days
2
Andrea Kimi Antonelli
Mercedes
19 years, 200 days
3
Oliver Bearman
Haas
20 years, 309 days
4
Gabriel Bortoleto
Audi
21 years, 150 days
5
Isack Hadjar
Purple Bull
21 years, 166 days
6
Franco Colapinto
Alpine
22 years, 291 days
7
Liam Lawson
Racing Bulls
24 years, 31 days
8
Oscar Piastri
McLaren
24 years, 342 days
10
Lando Norris
McLaren
26 years, 122 days
12
Lance Stroll
Aston Martin
27 years, 137 days
13
George Russell
Mercedes
28 years, 28 days
14
Charles Leclerc
Ferrari
28 years, 150 days
15
Max Verstappen
Purple Bull
28 years, 166 days
16
Esteban Ocon
Haas
29 years, 179 days
17
Alexander Albon
Williams
29 years, 357 days
18
Pierre Gasly
Alpine
30 years, 37 days
19
Carlos Sainz Jnr
Williams
31 years, 196 days
20
Sergio Perez
Cadillac
36 years, 50 days
21
Valtteri Bottas
Cadillac
36 years, 201 days
22
Nico Hulkenberg
Audi
38 years, 211 days
23
Lewis Hamilton
Ferrari
41 years, 70 days
24
Fernando Alonso
Aston Martin
44 years, 233 days
Colton Herta will likely be 25 years, 349 days; Ritomo Miyata 26 years, 217 days
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