He may have finished the 2024 season in style, winning at an oval for the first time and achieving his highest finish in the NTT IndyCar Series, but Colton Herta wasn’t entirely pleased with his performance.
The American driver managed to snap a two-year winless streak which had started to become a bit of a confidence killer.
Two victories in the final six races of the season indicate that he has built some good momentum heading into 2025, but first, there is more work to do.
Alex Palou is a formidable force at the front of the field, and it’s going to take more than what Herta has produced so far to beat him.
Colton Herta will ‘look at’ qualifying weakness
Herta may have been able to challenge for the drivers’ crown this year, had he been able to extract more performance from his car on a Saturday.
It certainly hindered him, and gave him more work to do during the races – something which he is going to investigate during his time off he told James Hinchcliffe for IndyCar’s YouTube channel.
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“That’s an interesting take. It’s definitely something that will roll into the offseason to look at,” he said.
“Honestly, it was a bizarre year because I look at it for the most part, and the previous years you look at it qualifying has probably been my stronger suit compared to the racing.
“Then it has flip-flopped, and I don’t think [changed]. When you qualify well it’s hard to do better in the race. It’s a lot easier to look good [charging through the field].”
Who are Herta’s main rivals in 2025?
Apart from the obvious Palou, who everyone is hunting in 2025, there are some other talents who Herta will have to beat again, which won’t be too easy.
Both Scott Dixon and Will Power have eight championships between themselves and are certain to be in contention at most races.
Scott McLaughlin has started to pressure his rivals and could be in with a shout of a first title for Team Penske.
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Pato O’Ward and Josef Newgarden are always threats too, while Santino Ferrucci and David Malukas are dark horse candidates to cause trouble too.
In other words, sorting out his qualifying blues could be essential to delivering the sort of performance which warrants a championships, and he knows that very well too.