Herta feels fast enough for Formula 1 after first test

Herta, who has racked up seven wins and eight pole positions since joining the IndyCar Series full-time in 2019, tested last year’s McLaren MCL35M under the TPC [testing previous car] rules, running 162 laps of the 2.891-mile Autodromo Internacional do Algarve across two days.

Although running the car on a track at which McLaren had data, thanks to the track hosting the 2020 and ’21 Portuguese Grands Prix, Herta said comparisons with the lap times of the team’s F1 regulars Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo in the MCL35 would be difficult.

“This is a track that is so hard to understand that aspect because of the winds and so many different factors,” he told the media. “It’s a little bit cooler today than it would have been on the race weekend.

“I was happy with the lap time but we’re on a little bit of a different tire than we’d have had on a race weekend. And if you look back to the quotes from a lot of guys from a year ago, they would talk about how windy it gets here and how much that can change the car here from corner to corner.

“So as far as lap times, it’s kind of hard to say. I think the engineers will know from looking at the data whether you’re fast or not.”

However, when asked if he was confident he’d be competitive in F1, Herta replied: “Yes, yes… you can’t say no to that question otherwise you wouldn’t be a professional driver. So yeah, I do think I’m fast enough.

“Whether they agree, I guess time will tell, and hopefully I can get more chances in the car and hopefully I can show it.”

To that end, he said he’d be interested in FP1 sessions later in the year, while admitting they would be less helpful in terms of available track time.

“[Friday practice] is certainly something I’d be open to,” said the 22-year-old from Valencia, California. “As far as TPC test days, you can’t get better than that because you get the whole track to yourself, you get all this time inside the car that obviously in FP1 in 60mins you wouldn’t get.

“But it would be cool to have a taste of the 2022 cars and see how they compare with this car. So yeah, I’d be up for it.”

Herta described his first F1 test as “a lot of fun” and was left deeply impressed with its acceleration.

“I think the first thing was, when I got off the pitlane speed-limiter, all the torque is pretty incredible,” he said. “Even when you’re at such low rpm, it still pulls….