{"id":44312,"date":"2026-09-02T14:33:49","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T14:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/44312\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T14:33:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T14:33:49","slug":"sergio-perez-replaced-as-cadillac-makes-colton-herta-fp1-announcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/44312\/","title":{"rendered":"Sergio Perez replaced as Cadillac makes Colton Herta FP1 announcement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colton Herta will drive Sergio Perez<\/a>\u2019s car in FP1 at this weekend\u2019s Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the Cadillac<\/a> F1 team has announced.<\/p>\n

It will mark Herta\u2019s third FP1 appearance of the F1 2026 season following previous outings in Barcelona and Hungary.<\/p>\n

Sergio Perez out, Colton Herta in for FP1 at Italian Grand Prix<\/p>\n

Herta, a nine-time race winner in the US-based IndyCar Series, joined Cadillac as a development driver ahead of the 2026 campaign as he targets a future F1 seat.<\/p>\n

The American has combined his Cadillac commitments with a race seat in Formula 2, F1\u2019s official feeder series, recording a best finish of fifth in Barcelona in June.<\/p>\n

That weekend saw Herta make his first-ever appearance on an F1 race weekend as he stepped in for Perez in FP1.<\/p>\n

He later drove the MAC-26 of Perez\u2019s teammate, Valtteri Bottas, in the opening practice session in Hungary in July.<\/p>\n

Valtteri Bottas vs Sergio Perez: Cadillac head-to-head stats for F1 2026 season<\/p>\n

F1 2026: Head-to-head qualifying records between teammates<\/a><\/p>\n

F1 2026: Head-to-head race statistics between teammates<\/a><\/p>\n

Ahead of the Italian Grand Prix, Cadillac has announced that Herta will once again deputise for Perez on Friday at Monza.<\/p>\n

Herta said: \u201cThis is an excellent opportunity to experience different aspects of the MAC-26.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving driven on the high-downforce tracks in Barcelona and Budapest, the challenge will be very different in Monza.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the car set up for low drag, it will move around more, placing a greater emphasis on accuracy at the braking points and on threading the eye of a needle across the curbs in the chicanes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really excited to be able to contribute to the race weekend and to the team\u2019s further development at one of the most iconic circuits in motorsport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under F1\u2019s rules, teams are required to field a rookie driver \u2013 classed as a driver who has started no more than two grands prix \u2013 in four FP1 sessions (two in each car) across a season.<\/p>\n

Herta\u2019s FP1 appearance at Monza will see Perez complete the requirement for each race driver to step aside twice per season, with Bottas still to sit out one more practice session before the season is over.<\/p>\n

Herta was slowest of all in his maiden FP1 appearance in Barcelona, lapping almost two seconds slower than Bottas.<\/p>\n

He managed to half the gap to the other Cadillac in his next outing in Budapest, lapping a second shy of Perez as he recorded the 20th-fastest time.<\/p>\n

The Italian Grand Prix will see Marcin Budkowski take charge of his second race as Cadillac team principal after replacing Graeme Lowdon during the summer break.<\/p>\n

As reported by PlanetF1.com last week<\/a>, Bottas recently denied that the departure of Lowdon will have an impact on his immediate future with the team, insisting that he is \u201call set for next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cadillac remains without a point in its debut season. Bottas\u2019s 13th-place finish in China in March remains the team\u2019s best result to date.<\/p>\n

Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n

You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n

Read next: Inside Cadillac\u2019s brake issues, shock leadership change and why Graeme Lowdon had to go<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colton Herta will drive Sergio Perez\u2019s car in FP1 at this weekend\u2019s Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[28805,28806,1534,14363,5,36,3161,8998],"class_list":["post-44312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-cadillac","tag-colton-herta","tag-home-page","tag-italian-grand-prix","tag-italy","tag-news","tag-popular","tag-sergio-perez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}