Colton Herta finds himself in a good position to fight for the IndyCar title as the 2024 season nears its conclusion.
The American is considered one of the top talents in IndyCar, having won eight races across his career so far.
Herta has recorded a best finish of third in the standings in 2020, with Scott Dixon running away with the title with a 116-point margin over the Andretti driver.
After a difficult 2022 and 2023 which saw Herta far out of reach in the championship hunt, the 24-year-old is back in the picture with four races to go this season.
However, it has not been all plain sailing, and speaking with RACER, Herta pinpointed what has been a weakness for Andretti this year.
Colton Herta reveals Andretti’s ‘Achilles heel’ this season
The American’s consistency is what has got him into the title fight for 2024, with an impressive eight top five finishes the series heads to Portland.
Among those results is four podiums, including his only win of the season so far in Toronto where he won from pole position.
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Andretti are enjoying a resurgence in form as they have seemed to have found the speed to compete with IndyCar giants Chip Ganassi and Penske.
But Herta says that there has still been an ‘Achilles heel’ that has held them back.
“It’s weird, you know?” he said. “I think there was a point in 2019 where everything was just working.
“The cars were super fast. This is my rookie year. Alex won two or three races. I won two races. Hunter-Reay won a race. The team had five or six or seven race wins and Alex finished third in the championship, and then with the aeroscreen and whatnot, we lost a little bit of performance, and we’ve been gaining ever since.
“And it’s not to say that we haven’t had fast race cars. We’ve had fast race cars a lot of the time, but just not consistently enough.
“I think this year we’ve had that. Iowa was a big Achilles heel for us. Gateway was another big Achilles heel for us, and we went well at both. Obviously we’ve been making small gains, and this year we were able to make big gains on both ends.”
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Colton Herta is 59 points behind championship leader Alex Palou
Alex Palou is currently on course to secure his third IndyCar title in four years, as the Chip Ganassi driver leads the championship by 59 points.
The Spaniard has shown incredible consistency with top five finishes in all but two races this season, with two wins and five podiums.
With four rounds to go, three of them are on oval circuits; a type of track Palou is still yet to win on, presenting a potential advantage to his rivals.
Portland is the final road course of the season, and with Herta winning five of his eight IndyCar victories on road circuits, the American will be looking to add another to his tally.