Colton Herta threaded a needle at 155 mph on the streets of Baku today, and it might be the most impressive thing he does all season in a series he never wanted to race in.
During Formula 2 qualifying at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the Cadillac F1 test driver’s car snapped loose under heavy braking into Turn 15, the rear end whipping around violently as he scrubbed speed from triple digits. Track telemetry shows F2 cars hit that corner entry between 155 and 161 mph before dropping to 50 or 60 at the apex. That’s a closing rate that leaves zero margin.
Herta made the right call instinctively. Instead of countersteering, which risked launching the nose into the concrete barriers lining both sides of the street circuit, he let the car complete a full 360-degree rotation. The car pirouetted between the walls without touching either one. He flat-spotted his tires beyond use and needed a pit stop, but he kept the bodywork intact and the suspension in one piece.
It looked like a planned stunt. It wasn’t.
The save itself is a reminder that Herta’s raw talent has never been in question. His hands are fast, his reflexes faster. The problem is everything around him. His maiden F2 season has produced results that charitably qualify as mediocre, and the reasons are layered.
Herta made a dramatic, somewhat rushed leap from IndyCar to F2 specifically to accumulate enough FIA superlicense points to qualify for a Formula 1 seat with the incoming Cadillac team. It was supposed to be a stepping stone. Instead, it’s become a quagmire.
F2 gets dismissed as a playground for wealthy amateurs. That reputation is lazy and wrong. The grid is stacked with hungry, fast drivers who have spent years learning these spec cars and these tracks. Herta arrived mid-stream, adjusting to unfamiliar machinery, unfamiliar circuits, and a racing culture built on different rhythms than what he knew in IndyCar.
The learning curve was always going to be brutal. Now the math is closing in on him. Herta sits two superlicense points short of the minimum threshold required to race in F1. He has publicly stated he is “not interested in another year in Formula 2.”
But desire and eligibility are two different things, and the FIA’s points system doesn’t care about reputation or highlight reels. If Herta can’t scrape together those final two points this season, he faces an uncomfortable choice. Either he returns to a series he openly wants to leave, or he watches the Cadillac F1 project launch without him behind the wheel.
The team is building toward its 2026 grid entry, and there is no workaround for the superlicense requirement. The FIA has been rigid on this.
So a 360-degree save at 155 mph makes for spectacular footage and proves Herta belongs in elite-level machinery. But car control isn’t the currency that buys an F1 seat. Points are. And right now, he doesn’t have enough of them.
The Baku weekend continues, and Herta still needs results, not just saves.
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