Herta joined the team as its test and development driver for 2026<\/a>, with his Monza appearance continuing a planned program of F1 mileage across the season.<\/p>\n\u201cThis is an excellent opportunity to experience different aspects of the MAC-26,\u201d Herta said.<\/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
Herta will combine his F1 commitments with his Formula 2 campaign for Hitech during the weekend as he continues to push his case for a future race opportunity with Cadillac.<\/p>\n
He will not be the only rookie taking over a regular driver\u2019s car in FP1, with Williams reserve Luke Browning and Alpine\u2019s Paul Aron also confirmed for Friday\u2019s opening session.<\/p>\n
Browning will step into Alex Albon\u2019s Williams for his second official FP1 appearance of 2026 before handing the FW48 back ahead of second practice.<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old was initially due to drive in Barcelona earlier this season, although an electrical problem prevented the session from counting towards Williams\u2019 rookie-running requirement.<\/p>\n
He returned to the car in Austria, where he finished FP1 in 18th and was around three-tenths away from Albon.<\/p>\n
Monza will mark Browning\u2019s sixth FP1 appearance for Williams overall, having first driven during an official grand prix weekend at Abu Dhabi in 2024.<\/p>\n
The Briton currently combines his reserve and Driver Academy responsibilities with Williams alongside a full-time Super Formula campaign in Japan with Kondo Racing.<\/p>\n
Aron will meanwhile replace Pierre Gasly at Alpine for what will be his fourth FP1 appearance of the season and his second with the French team.<\/p>\n
The Estonian previously drove for Audi in Barcelona and Austria through an arrangement between the two teams before making his first Alpine FP1 appearance in Hungary.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am looking forward to driving again in Free Practice 1 with the team this weekend,\u201d Aron said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am grateful to the team for giving me the opportunity to get back behind the wheel so soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very pleased with my session in Budapest, and I hope to build on it this time around, particularly helping the team compare our latest upgrade package which I have driven in the simulator.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a busy weekend for me as I\u2019ll be on the simulator at Enstone on Friday night to further help the team fine tune the set-up before returning to the track on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll give it my all to hopefully assist the team in having a successful weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aron\u2019s work will also contribute to Alpine\u2019s assessment of its latest upgrade package, which debuted on Gasly\u2019s car at Zandvoort and will be available to both Gasly and Franco Colapinto at Monza.<\/p>\n
F1 regulations require teams to provide practice opportunities to inexperienced drivers during the season, with each regular race driver required to give up their car for two FP1 sessions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colton Herta is set for another F1 appearance this weekend in Italy. Image: XPB Images Herta will replace…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":876983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[821,64,63,3550,68659,817,813,816,44231,129508,59963,85,819],"class_list":["post-876982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-alpine","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cadillac","tag-colton-herta","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-italian-gp","tag-luke-browning","tag-paul-aron","tag-sports","tag-williams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Herta](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/XPB_1428632_HiRes.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tColton Herta is set for another F1 appearance this weekend in Italy. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n