Medland: 'FIA needs Superlicence rule change for IndyCar's top talent'

F1

The current Superlicence points system is currently preventing several top IndyCar drivers making the F1 jump – something has to give, writes Chris Medland

2022-IndyCar-driver-Colton-Herta

As it stands, IndyCar sensation Herta doesn't make the grade for F1

IndyCar

As silly seasons go, we’re getting a good one. I’ve got to admit I wasn’t expecting it, because not all that long ago I was under the impression Sebastian Vettel was likely to continue, Daniel Ricciardo would see out his contract and Fernando Alonso would renew at Alpine.

That would basically have left Williams to get Oscar Piastri or another replacement for Nicholas Latifi, and potentially a vacancy at Haas.

It only really took one of those decisions to change for the whole market to open up, and Vettel’s retirement was the catalyst. But now teams are left thinking about the vacancies they have and a solid list of drivers who could potentially fill them, given the uncertainty elsewhere on the grid.

It’s a time where the hypothetical has taken over. McLaren talks about its other options if it doesn’t secure the rights to Oscar Piastri, while Alpine also has what Otmar Szafnauer joked is a list of 14 driver names that could be targeted. That might be a gross overestimation of realistic candidates, but some could have knock-on impacts elsewhere.

2022-Alpine-reserve-driver-Oscar-Piastri

Piastri row could bring Superlicence situation into sharp relief

DPPI

The most likely scenario is that Piastri will end up as a McLaren driver, either through the Contract Recognition Board saying he only has a valid contract with the Woking-based team or through compensation being paid to Alpine if the decision goes Enstone’s way.

But Zak Brown says the drivers that have tested its 2021 car – Pato O’Ward, Colton Herta and eventually (if another court battle works out in McLaren’s favour) Alex Palou – are in the frame if Piastri doesn’t end up joining. And that makes a lot of sense, given the investment made into at least two of those drivers so far to give them seat time.

That’s not believed to be an exhaustive list but they’re exactly who Brown would want to be able to turn to if needed, and it transpires Red Bull would be interested in doing the same with one name.

Should a seat open up at AlphaTauri – either through Alpine brokering a deal for Pierre Gasly or Yuki Tsunoda being dropped – then Herta is on Red Bull’s radar.

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Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko enjoys a good relationship with the Carlin team and often asked Trevor Carlin for his opinion on US-based talents when he ran an IndyCar outfit. Given the fact both O’Ward and Herta have driven for Carlin at different points, he has good things to say about both, and sees the 22-year-old Californian as possessing the skillset to succeed in F1 given the right preparation.

So it’s no surprise that Marko has been sounding out Herta’s current situation, but there is a sticking point: his Super Licence.

Herta doesn’t currently have enough Super Licence points after the FIA deemed the 2018 Indy Lights season – when he finished runner-up to O’Ward – to not be eligible for points due to the number of drivers that started the first round (nine). On the current rules, it would be eligible for 30%, but that still doesn’t get him over the line.

And for a driver who has won seven IndyCar races, been on pole nine times and can add a further three podiums to that tally from 62 races so far, it seems strange that he’s still scrabbling around trying to hit the FIA’s magic 40-point mark.

It all comes down to how IndyCar is ranked by the FIA.

2022-IndyCar-race-at-Gateway-lead-by-Colton-Herta

Herta leads a pack at Gateway 2022 – his seven IndyCar wins still don’t qualify him for F1

IndyCar

It already has to host its road course rounds on FIA homologated circuits to receive its points, but while the champion automatically qualifies for a Super Licence, second place only gets 30 points, with the return diminishing to just eight points for the driver fifth in the championship and one point for tenth place.

Compare that to Formula 2, where the top three are guaranteed a Super Licence and fourth picks up 30 points compared to 10 in IndyCar. Formula 3 even gets more from third place downwards in the top ten positions. Heck, finish fourth in Formula Regional and you’re picking up the same amount of points as you would if you’d achieved it in IndyCar.

With how this year’s championship is shaping up, that means two of the five drivers currently in the championship fight with two rounds to go – Will Power, Josef Newgarden, Scott Dixon, Marcus Ericsson and Alex Palou – would pick up no more than a quarter of the points needed for an FIA Super Licence to race in F1.

That’s relevant because Herta has consecutive top-five championship finishes from the past two seasons, and only earned 28 points for it. With seventh the year before (and two wins as a teenage rookie) he has 32 in total.

The Super Licence was supposed to prevent wealthy drivers with no results to their name from buying an F1 seat, and ensure a minimum level of talent that reaches the top level. And it has worked. Drivers might still come in with huge funding but whoever we deem the “worst” driver (there will always be one) is at a much higher level than many seen in the past.

But in simultaneously trying to create a set FIA European ladder that drivers are encouraged to take to reach F1, the governing body has left so many other talents out on the cold. It has the opposite effect when it comes to a highly-competitive series such as IndyCar, because the level is higher than F2 but that makes it harder to reach positions that pay fewer Super Licence points.

2022-IndyCar-driver-Alex-Palou

Only the IndyCar champion automatically qualifies for a Superlicence – Alex Palou won last year’s title

IndyCar

And in a day and age when F1 is booming around the world and could realistically attract drivers from even more emerging markets in the near future, those drivers are all being told that the only route is to go through F4, F3 and F2 in Europe, because impressing with your talent in another series might lead to an F1 team wanting to sign you but being unable to.

I understand the desire to prioritise FIA-run championships as a route to F1, but if drivers are winning multiple races in IndyCar they are clearly talented enough to earn a Super Licence, and then it should be up to F1 teams to decide whether they can make the transition from racing in North America to the grand prix circuit.

A Super Licence isn’t a guarantee of an F1 seat by any stretch, but it is a huge road block to far too many drivers with the right potential as things stand.

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